Author: Dana Lindemann

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

"This thesis presents the searches for two rare B meson decays: the radiative leptonic decay B+ -> l+ nu gamma (l = e, mu) and the flavor-changing neutral current B -> K(*) nu nubar. These searches use the full dataset collected by the BaBar experiment, which corresponds to almost 500 million BB pairs. After fully reconstructing the hadronic decay of one of the B mesons in Upsilon(4S) -> BB decays, evidence of B+ -> l+ nu gamma or B -> K(*) nu nubar is looked for in the rest of the event. No significant evidence of either signal decay is observed. Model-independent branching-fraction upper limits are set at BR(B ->e nu gamma)17 x10 {-6}, BR(B -mu nu gamma)24 x10 {-6}, and BR(B -l nu gamma)15.6 x10 {-6}, all at the 90% confidence level. These are currently the most stringent published upper limits for B+ - l+ nu gamma. In addition, branching-fraction upper limits are set at BR(B -> K+ nu nubar)3.7 x10 {-5}, BR(B - K0 nu nubar)8.0 x10 {-5}, BR(B - K*+ nu nubar)11.5 x10 {-5}, and BR(B - K*0 nu nubar)9.2 x10 {-5}, all at the 90% confidence level. For additional sensitivity to New Physics contributions, partial B - K(*) nu nubar branching-fraction upper limits are also determined over the full kinematic range." --