Three Lectures on Meson Mixing and CKM phenomenology

Abstract

I give an introduction to the theory of meson-antimeson mixing, aiming at students who plan to work at a flavour physics experiment or intend to do associated theoretical studies. I derive the formulae for the time evolution of a neutral meson system and show how the mass and width differences among the neutral meson eigenstates and the CP phase in mixing are calculated in the Standard Model. Special emphasis is laid on CP violation, which is covered in detail for K mixing, Bd mixing and Bs mixing. I explain the constraints on the apex (rho-bar,eta-bar) of the unitarity triangle implied by epsilon_K, Delta m_{B_d}, Delta m_{B_d}/(Delta m_{B_s}) and various mixing-induced CP asymmetries such as a_CP(Bd-bar -> J/psi K_short)(t). The impact of a future measurement of CP violation in flavour-specific Bd decays is also shown.