Electroweak Penguin Amplitudes and Constraints on Γ in Charmless B

Electroweak penguin (EWP) amplitudes are studied model-independently in B meson decays to charmless final states consisting of a vector meson (V ) and a pseudoscalar meson (P ). A set of SU(3) relations is derived between EWP contributions and tree amplitudes, in the approximation of retaining only the dominant EWP operators Q9 and Q10 . Two applications are described for constraining the weak phase γ, in B± → ρ±K0 and B± → ρ0K± (or B± → K∗±π0 and B± → K∗0π±), and in B → K∗±π∓ and B± → φK±. Theoretical uncertainties are discussed. PACS numbers: 13.25.Hw, 14.40.Nd, 11.30.Er, 12.15.Ji