Simple relations for two body B decays to charmonium and tests for η–η′ mixing

The two body decays of Bd and Bs decays into J/ψM, where M is a light meson, is studied under the very simple assumptions that the spectator quark does not play a role in the decay of the weak heavy quark or antiquark. This hypothesis leads to interesting relations between decay amplitudes. The assumption of SU(3) symmetry leads to additional relations between the decay amplitudes and in particular, the eight CP eigenstates J/ψKS, J/ψη, J/ψη′ and J/ψπ0 are all given in terms of three parameters. If agreement with experiment validates these assumptions the parameters over determined by the results will give information about the ratio of penguin to tree contributions to the “golden channel” B0→J/ψKS decay and will provide tests for the standard η–η′ mixing, which assumes that this mixing is determined by a single mixing angle, as well as determine the value of the mixing angle. We also present tests of the standard η–η′ mixing involving semileptonic D decays.