Measurement of the B-0 -> phi K-*0 decay amplitudes

A full angular analysis and search for CP violation in the angular distribution with the decays was performed. A broad invariant mass distribution accounted for all potential S-wave contributions leaking into the mass selection window. For B decays to light charmless particles, the hierarchy of decay amplitudes was expected. It was found that systematic errors in efficiencies were dominated by those in track finding and particle identification.

With a sample of about 227x10(6) B (B) over bar pairs recorded with the BABAR detector we perform a full angular analysis of the decay B-0-->phiK(*0)(892). We make novel measurements of five parameters sensitive to CP violation. We also measure the branching fraction to be (9.2+/-0.9+/-0.5)x10(-6) and determine the fractions of longitudinal and parity-odd transverse contributions as f(L)=0.52+/-0.05+/-0.02 and f(perpendicular to)=0.22+/-0.05+/-0.02. The phases of the parity-even and parity-odd transverse amplitudes relative to the longitudinal amplitude are found to be phi(parallel to)=2.34(-0.20)(+0.23)+/-0.05 rad and phi(perpendicular to)=2.47+/-0.25+/-0.05 rad. We also observe the decay B-0-->phiK(*0)(1430).