Theoretical Status of K->pinunubar Decays

We present a concise review of the theoretical status of rare K->pinunubar decays in and beyond the standard model. Particular attention is thereby devoted to the recent calculation of the next-to-next-to-leading order corrections to the charm quark contribution of K^+->pi^+nunubar which removes the last relevant theoretical uncertainty from the K->pinunubar system.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, talk given at the XLIst Rencontres de Moriond QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions, La Thuile, Aosta Valley, Italy, March 18--25, 200

Rare K- (vs.) B-decays

We present a concise review of the recent theoretical progress concerning the standard model calculations of the rare K_L -> pi^0 nu anti-nu, K^+ -> pi^+ nu anti-nu (gamma), anti-B -> X_s gamma, and anti-B -> X_s l^+ l^- decays. The current status and future of the model-independent analysis of rare K- and B-meson decays within constrained minimal-flavor-violation is also briefly discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Kaon International Conference (KAON'07), Frascati, Italy, 21-25 May 2007, uses pdflatex; minor changes, final version accepted for publication on Po

How To Kill a Penguin

Within constrained minimal-flavor-violation the large destructive flavor-changing Z-penguin managed to survive eradication so far. We give a incisive description of how to kill it using the precision measurements of the Z -> b anti-b pseudo observables. The derived stringent range for the non-standard contribution to the universal Inami-Lim function C leads to tight two-sided limits for the branching ratios of all Z-penguin dominated flavor-changing K- and B-decays.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, uses pdflatex, talk given at DIS 2007, Muenchen, Germany, April 15--20, 200

Something about Z-penguins I want to tell

We stress that in models with constrained minimal flavor violation large negative corrections to the flavor-changing Z-penguin amplitudes are excluded by the precision measurements of the Z -> b anti-b pseudo observables performed at LEP and SLC. The derived stringent range for the non-standard contribution to the universal Inami-Lim function C leads to tight two-sided limits for the branching ratios of all Z-penguin dominated flavor-changing K- and B-decays.Comment: Parallel talk at ICHEP08, Philadelphia, USA, July 2008. 5 pages, PDFLaTeX, 2 pdf figures and 1 table; v2: LaTeX template and references update

Recent Developments in Bbar -> X_s gamma

We present a concise review of the recent theoretical progress concerning the standard model calculation of the inclusive radiative Bbar -> X_s gamma decay. Particular attention is thereby devoted to the calculations of the next-to-next-to-leading order fixed-order O(alpha_s^2) contributions, non-local O(alpha_s Lambda/m_b) power corrections, and logarithmic-enhanced O(alpha_s^2) cut-effects to the decay rate. The current status of new physics calculations of the inclusive b -> s gamma mode is also briefly summarized.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, based on invited talks given at the third meeting of the workshop ``Flavour in the era of the LHC'', CERN, Geneva, March 15--17, 2006 and at XLIInd Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and Hadronic Interactions, La Thuile, Italy, March 17--24, 2007, v2: minor modification

On the importance of loop-induced spin-independent interactions for dark matter direct detection

The latest results from LHC searches for jets in association with missing transverse energy place strong bounds on the scattering cross section of dark matter. For the case of spin-dependent or momentum suppressed interactions these limits seem to be superior to the bounds from direct detection experiments. In this article, we show that loop contributions can significantly alter this conclusion and boost direct detection bounds, whenever they induce spin-independent interactions. This effect is most striking for tensor and pseudotensor interactions, which induce magnetic and electric dipole moments at loop level. For axialvector and anapole interactions a relevant contribution to direct detection signals arises from loop-induced Yukawa-like couplings between dark matter and quarks. We furthermore compare the resulting bounds to additional constraints on these effective operators arising from indirect searches and relic density requirements.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. v2: new appendix, minor corrections, references added - matches published versio