Radiative and Electroweak Penguin Decays of B Mesons

Radiative and electroweak penguin decays of B mesons are flavor-changing-neutral-current processes that provide powerful ways to test the Standard Model at the one-loop level, to search for the effects of new physics, and to extract Standard Model parameters such as CKM matrix elements and quark masses. The large data samples obtained by the B-factory experiments BaBar and Belle, together with an intensive theoretical effort, have led to significant progress towards understanding these rare decays. Recent experimental results include the measurements of the b→dγ decays B→ρ(ω)γ, the observation of B→K(∗)ℓ+ℓ− decays (together with studies of the associated kinematic distributions), and improved measurements of the inclusive B→Xsγ rate and photon energy spectrum.