Searching for New Physics with B-Decay Fake Triple Products

In pure-penguin bbar -> sbar B -> V_1 V_2 decays (V_{1,2} are vector mesons), fT/fL ~= 1 has been observed (fT (fL) is the polarization fraction of transverse (longitudinal) decays). Explanations of this unexpectedly large result have been given within the standard model (SM) and with new physics (NP). In this paper, we show that these two explanations can be partially distinguished through the triple products (TP's) in these transitions. In particular, the SM predicts one of the two fake, CP-conserving TP's to be small (|A_T^{(2)}| <= 9%), while NP often gives larger values for |A_T^{(2)}|. We discuss the implications of the measurements of both fake TP's in B -> phi K* -- the present data prefer a SM explanation of fT/fL -- and provide the SM predictions for Bs -> phi phi.