Search for exclusive charmless hadronic B decays

We have searched for two-body charmless hadronic decays of B mesons. Final states include ππ, Kπ, and KK with both charged and neutral kaons and pions: πρ, Kρ, and ${\mathit{K}}^{\mathrm{*}}$π; and Kφ, ${\mathit{K}}^{\mathrm{*}}$φ, and φφ. The data used in this analysis consist of 2.6×${10}^6$ BB¯ pairs produced at the Υ(4S) taken with the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). We measure the branching fraction of the sum of ${\mathit{B}}^0$→${\mathrm{\pi }}^{+}$${\mathrm{\pi }}^{\mathrm{-}}$ and ${\mathit{B}}^0$→${\mathit{K}}^{+}$${\mathrm{\pi }}^{\mathrm{-}}$ to be (1.$8_{\mathrm{-}0.5\mathrm{-}0.3}^{+0.6+0.2\mathrm{}}$±0.2)×${10}^{\mathrm{-}5}$. In addition, we place upper limts on individual branching fractions in the range from ${10}^{\mathrm{-}4}$ to ${10}^{\mathrm{-}6}$. © 1996 The American Physical Society.