Flavor Physics and CP Violation.pdfVIP

a r X i v : h e p - p h / 9 8 1 0 5 2 0 v 1 2 9 O c t 1 9 9 8 hep-ph/9810520 WIS-98/29/Oct-DPP Flavor Physics and CP Violation Yosef Nir Department of Particle Physics Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel ftnir@clever.weizmann.ac.il This is a written version of a series of three lectures aimed at graduate students in the field of experimental high energy physics. The emphasis is on physics that is relevant to B-factories. The main topics covered are: (i) The flavor sector of the Standard Model; (ii) Determination of the mixing parameters; (iii) CP violation in meson decays (a model independent description); (iv) CP violation in the Standard Model; (v) CP violation as a probe of new physics. Lectures given at the 1998 European School of High Energy Physics University of St. Andrews, Scotland August 23 - September 5 1998 10/98 1. Flavor Physics 1.1. What is Flavor Physics and Why is it Interesting? The Standard Model fermions appear in three generations. Flavor physics describes interactions that distinguish between the fermion generations. The fermions experience two types of interactions: gauge interactions, where two fermions couple to a gauge boson, and Yukawa interactions, where two fermions couple to a scalar. Within the Standard Model [1-3], there are twelve gauge bosons, related to the gauge symmetry GSM = SU(3)C × SU(2)L × U(1)Y, (1.1) and a single Higgs scalar, related to the spontaneous symmetry breaking GSM → SU(3)C × U(1)EM. (1.2) In the interaction basis, gauge interactions are diagonal (and universal, namely described by a single gauge coupling for each factor in GSM: gs, g and g ′). By definition, the interaction eigenstates have no gauge couplings between fermions of different generations. The Yuakawa interactions are, however, quite complicated in the interaction basis. In particular, there are Yukawa couplings that involve fermions of different generations and, consequently, the interaction eigenstates do not have well-defined m