An analysis of two-body non-leptonic B decays involving light mesons in the standard model

We report a theoretical analysis of the exclusive non-leptonic decays of B mesons into two light mesons, some of which have been measured recently by the CLEO collaboration. Our analysis is carried out in the context of an effective Hamiltonian based on the Standard Model (SM), using next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. Using a factorization ansatz for the hadronic matrix elements, we show that existing data are accounted for in this approach. Thus, theoretical scenarios with a substantially enhanced Wilson coefficient of the chromomagnetic dipole operator (as compared to the SM) and/or those with a substantial color-singlet $c\bar{c}$ component in the wave function of $\eta^\prime$ are not required by these data. We predict, among other decay rates, the branching ratios for the decays $B^0 (\bar{B^0}) \to \pi^\pm \pi^\mp$ and $B^\pm \to \pi^0 \pi^\pm$, which are close to the present experimental limits. Implications of some of these measurements for the parameters of the CKM matrix are presented.