Lattice QCD calculation of form factors describing the rare decays $B \to K^* \ell^+ \ell^-$ and $B_s \to φ\ell^+ \ell^-$

Ronald R. Horgan, Zhaofeng Liu, Stefan Meinel, Matthew Wingate

Published 2013-10-14, updated 2014-04-18Version 3

The rare decays $B^0 \to K^{*0} \mu^+ \mu^-$ and $B_s \to \phi \mu^+ \mu^-$ are now being observed with enough precision to test Standard Model predictions. A full understanding of these decays requires accurate determinations of the corresponding hadronic form factors. Here we present results of lattice QCD calculations of the $B \to K^*$ and $B_s \to \phi$ form factors; we also determine the form factors relevant for the tree-level decays $B_s \to K^* \ell \nu$. We use full-QCD configurations including 2+1 flavors of sea quarks using an improved staggered action, and we employ lattice non-relativistic QCD to describe the bottom quark.