Tree and penguin amplitudes from B to pi pi, K pi, K bar{K}

The question of the relative size of tree and penguin amplitudes is analyzed using the data on B to pi pi, B^+ to pi^+ K^0, and B^+ to K^+ \bar{K}^0 decays. Our discussion involves an estimate of SU(3) breaking in the final quark-pair-creating hadronization process. The estimate is based on Regge phenomenology, which many years ago proved very successful in the description of soft hadronic physics. Accepting the Regge prediction as solid, it is then shown that the relative size and phase of the two parts of the penguin amplitude can be unambiguously extracted from the data on the decays considered. This enables fixing the C/T ratio of `true' tree amplitudes, which - on the basis of the existing data - is shown to be small (of the order of 0.2).