Electromagnetic radiative penguin decays of the B meson were studied with the BaBar detector at SLAC's PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory. Branching fractions and isospin asymmetry of the decay B → K*[gamma], branching fractions of B → K*2(1430)[gamma], and a search for B° → [phi][gamma] are presented. The decay rates may be enhanced by contributions from non-standard model processes.

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 2!d[gamma] decays B 2[gamma], the observation of B 2!K(*)ll− decays (together with studies of the associated kinematic distributions), and improved measurements of the inclusive B 2!Xs[gamma] rate and photon energy spectrum.

Radiative decays of the B meson, B 2!X{sub s}[gamma], proceed via virtual flavor changing neutral current processes that are sensitive to contributions from high mass scales, either within the Standard Model of electroweak interactions or beyond. In the Standard Model, these transitions are sensitive to the weak interactions of the top quark, and relatively robust predictions of the inclusive decay rate exist. Significant deviation from these predictions could be interpreted as indications for processes not included in the minimal Standard Model, like interactions of charged Higgs or SUSY particles. The analysis of the inclusive photon spectrum from B 2!X{sub s}[gamma] decays is rather challenging due to high backgrounds from photons emitted in the decay of mesons in B decays as well as ee− annihilation to low mass quark and lepton pairs. Based on 88.5 million B{bar B} events collected by the BABAR detector, the photon spectrum above 1.9 GeV is presented. By comparison of the first and second moments of the photon spectrum with QCD predictions (calculated in the kinetic scheme), QCD parameters describing the bound state of the b quark in the B meson are extracted: m{sub b} = (4.45 ± 0.16) GeV/c2; [mu]{sub {pi}}2 = (0.65 ± 0.29) GeV2. These parameters are useful input to non-perturbative QCD corrections to the semileptonic B decay rate and the determination of the CKM parameter.