Search for B -> phi pi decays

Abstract

We report on a search for the charmless decays $B^{+} \toϕπ^{+}$ and $B^{0} \toϕπ^{0}$ that are strongly suppressed in the Standard Model. The analysis is based on a data sample of $657 \times 10^6$ $B \bar{B}$ pairs collected at the $Υ(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy $e^+ e^-$ collider. We find no significant signal and set upper limits of $3.3 \times 10^{-7}$ for $B^{+} \to ϕπ^{+}$ and $1.5 \times 10^{-7}$ for $B^0 \to ϕπ^0$ at the 90% confidence level.

submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC)