Direct CP violation in non-leptonic charm decays: Implications for new physics

Abstract

I review the implications of recent measurements of CP violation in D meson decays in the context of standard model extensions. Using effective theory methods, one can derive significant constraints on the possible non-standard contributions from measurements of neutral D meson mixing and direct CP violation in kaon decays. Due to an approximate universality of CP violation in new physics scenarios which only break the SU(3)_Q flavor symmetry of the standard model kinetic Lagrangian, such contributions are particularly constrained by epsilon'/epsilon. Explanations of the observed effect within several explicit well-motivated new physics frameworks are briefly discussed. Finally, possible future experimental tests able to distinguish standard vs. non-standard explanations of the observed CP violation in the charm sector are mentioned.