Contents

Recent experimental results on angular observables in the rare decay B → K∗µ+µ− show significant deviations from Standard Model predictions. We investigate the possibility that these deviations are due to new physics. Combining all relevant data on b → s rare decays, we show that a consistent explanation of most anomalies can be obtained by new physics contributing simultaneously to the semi-leptonic vector operator O9 and its chirality-flipped counterpart O 9. A partial explana-tion is possible with new physics in O9 or in dipole operators only. We study in detail the implications for models of new physics, in particular the minimal supersymmetric standard model, models with partial compositeness and generic models with flavour-changing Z ′ bosons. In all considered models, contributions to B → K∗µ+µ − of the preferred size imply a spectrum close to the TeV scale. We stress that measurements of CP asymmetries in B → K∗µ+µ − could provide valuable information to narrow down possible new physics explanations