Symmetry violations at BABAR

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.2014 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 556 012042 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1742-6596/556/1/012042

CKM Matrix: Status and New Developments

An analysis of the CKM matrix parameters within the {\it R}fit approach is presented using updated input values with special emphasis on the recent $\sin{2\beta}$ measurements from BABAR and Belle. The QCD Factorisation Approach describing $B \to \pi\pi,K\pi$ decays has been implemented in the software package CKMfitter. Fits using branching ratios and CP asymmetries are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 6 postscript figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Heavy Flavour Physics, September 2001, Pasadena, US

A New Approach to a Global Fit of the CKM Matrix

We report on a global CKM matrix analysis taking into account most recent experimental and theoretical results. The statistical framework (Rfit) developed in this paper advocates formal frequentist statistics. Other approaches, such as Bayesian statistics or the 95% CL scan method are also discussed. We emphasize the distinction of a model testing and a model dependent, metrological phase in which the various parameters of the theory are determined. Measurements and theoretical parameters entering the global fit are thoroughly discussed, in particular with respect to their theoretical uncertainties. Graphical results for confidence levels are drawn in various one and two-dimensional parameter spaces. Numerical results are provided for all relevant CKM parameterizations, the CKM elements and theoretical input parameters. Predictions for branching ratios of rare K and B meson decays are obtained. A simple, predictive SUSY extension of the Standard Model is discussed.Comment: 66 pages, added figures, corrected typos, no quantitative change

Rare K decay: results and prospects

Recent results on rare kaon decays are reviewed and prospects for future experiments are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, submitted to the Proc. 9th Intl. Symp. on Heavy Flavor Physic

Reply to: ''Improved Determination of the CKM Angle alpha from B -> pipi decays''

In reply to hep-ph/0701204 we demonstrate why the arguments made therein do not address the criticism exposed in hep-ph/0607246 on the fundamental shortcomings of the Bayesian approach when it comes to the extraction of parameters of Nature from experimental data. As for the isospin analysis and the CKM angle alpha it is shown that the use of uniform priors for the observed quantities in the Explicit Solution parametrization is equivalent to a frequentist construction resulting from a change of variables, and thus relies neither on prior PDFs nor on Bayes' theorem. This procedure provides in this particular case results that are similar to the Confidence Level approach, but the treatment of mirror solutions remains incorrect and it is far from being general. In a second part it is shown that important differences subsist between the Bayesian and frequentist approaches, when following the proposal of hep-ph/0701204 and inserting additional information on the hadronic amplitudes beyond isospin invariance. In particular the frequentist result preserves the exact degeneracy that is expected from the remaining symmetries of the problem while the Bayesian procedure does not. Moreover, in the Bayesian approach reducing inference to the 68% or 95% credible interval is a misconception of the meaning of the posterior PDF, which in turn implies that the significant dependence of the latter to the chosen parametrization cannot be viewed as a minor effect, contrary to the claim in hep-ph/0701204.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Fig. 1 corrected (wrong file

Bayesian Statistics at Work: the Troublesome Extraction of the CKM Phase alpha

In Bayesian statistics, one's prior beliefs about underlying model parameters are revised with the information content of observed data from which, using Bayes' rule, a posterior belief is obtained. A non-trivial example taken from the isospin analysis of B-->PP (P = pi or rho) decays in heavy-flavor physics is chosen to illustrate the effect of the naive "objective" choice of flat priors in a multi-dimensional parameter space in presence of mirror solutions. It is demonstrated that the posterior distribution for the parameter of interest, the phase alpha, strongly depends on the choice of the parameterization in which the priors are uniform, and on the validity range in which the (un-normalizable) priors are truncated. We prove that the most probable values found by the Bayesian treatment do not coincide with the explicit analytical solution, in contrast to the frequentist approach. It is also shown in the appendix that the alpha-->0 limit cannot be consistently treated in the Bayesian paradigm, because the latter violates the physical symmetries of the problem.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figure

The estimation of neutrino fluxes produced by proton-proton collisions at s=14\sqrt{s}=14 TeV of the LHC

Intense and collimated neutrino beams are produced by charm and beauty particle decays from proton-proton collisions at the LHC. A neutrino experiment would be run parasitically without interrupting the LHC physics program during the collider run. We estimate the neutrino fluxes from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV of the LHC with the designed luminosity, 10^{34} \lumi. By mounting about 200 tons of fiducial volume of a neutrino detector at 300 \m away from the interaction point, about 150,000 of charged current neutrino events per year can be observable.Comment: 8 pages, Accepted in JHE

Model uncertainties in top-quark physics

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are studying the top quark in pp collisions at 7 and 8 TeV. Due to the large integrated luminosity, precision measurements of production cross-sections and properties are often limited by systematic uncertainties. An overview of the modeling uncertainties for simulated events is given in this report.Comment: Proceedings from the 7th International Workshop on Top Quark Physics, Cannes, Franc

Results from TopFitter

We discuss a global fit of top quark BSM couplings, phrased in the model-independent language of higher-dimensional effective operators, to the currently available data from the LHC and Tevatron. We examine the interplay between inclusive and differential measurements, and the complementarity of LHC and Tevatron results. We conclude with a discussion of projections for improvement over LHC Run II.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of the 9th International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle, 28 November - 3 December 2016, Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indi