Rescattering and Electroweak Penguin Effects in Strategies to Constrain and Determine the CKM Angle $\gamma$ from $B \to \pi K$ Decays

A general parametrization of the $B^+\to\pi^+ K^0$ and $B_d^0\to\pi^- K^+$ decay amplitudes is presented. It relies only on the isospin symmetry of strong interactions and the phase structure of the Standard Model and involves no approximations. In particular, this parametrization takes into account both rescattering and electroweak penguin effects, which limit the theoretical accuracy of bounds on $\gamma$ arising from the combined $B^\pm\to\pi^\pm K$, $B_d\to\pi^\mp K^\pm$ branching ratios. Generalized bounds making also use of the CP asymmetry in the latter decay are derived, and their sensitivity to possible rescattering and electroweak penguin effects is investigated. It is pointed out that experimental data on $B^\pm\to K^\pm K$ allow us to include rescattering processes in these bounds completely, and an improved theoretical treatment of electroweak penguins is presented. It is argued that rescattering effects may enhance the combined $B^\pm\to K^\pm K$ branching ratio by a factor of ${\cal O}(10)$ to the $10^{-5}$ level, and that they may be responsible for the small present central value of the ratio of the combined $B_d\to\pi^\mp K^\pm$ and $B^\pm\to\pi^\pm K$ branching ratios, which has recently been reported by the CLEO collaboration and, if confirmed, would exclude values of