Bounding CKM Mixing with a Fourth Family

Abstract

CKM mixing between third family quarks and a possible fourth family is constrained by global fits to the precision electroweak data. The dominant constraint is from nondecoupling oblique corrections rather than the Zbb vertex correction used in previous analyses. The possibility of large mixing suggested by some recent analyses of FCNC processes is excluded, but 3-4 mixing of the same order as the Cabbibo mixing of the first two families is allowed.