New information on B decays to charmless VP final states - art. no. 073008

The decays of B mesons to charmless final states consisting of a vector mes on (V) and a pseudoscalar meson (P) are analyzed within flavor SU(3). Predi ctions are compared with new data from the CLEO Collaboration. Dominant con tributions to amplitudes and subdominant interfering terms are identified. Evidence is found for a specific penguin amplitude (contributing, for examp le, to B+-->p(+)K(0)) at a level much higher than that implied by most expl icit models. The validity of the conclusion cos gamma<0, obtained through o ther analyses of B-->VP decays, is examined here from a less model-dependen t standpoint. It is found that several processes are consistent with cos ga mma<0 (or cos alpha>0), and measurements are suggested which could make thi s conclusion more robust.