Testing the Standard Model with CP-asymmetries in flavour-specific non-leptonic decays

Abstract

Motivated by recent indications that the rates of colour-allowed non-leptonic channels are not in agreement with their Standard Model expectations based on QCD factorisation, we investigate the potential to study CP asymmetries with these decays. In the Standard Model, these flavour-specific decays are sensitive to CP violation in $B^0_{(s)}$--$\bar{B}^0_{(s)}$ mixing, which is predicted with low uncertainties and can be measured precisely with semileptonic decays. If there are beyond Standard Model contributions to the non-leptonic decay amplitudes, there could be significant enhancements to the CP asymmetries. Measurements of these quantities therefore have potential to identify BSM effects without relying on Standard Model predictions that might be affected by hadronic effects. We discuss the experimental prospects, and note the excellent potential for a precise determination of the CP asymmetry in $\bar{B}_s \to D_s^+ \pi^-$ decays by the LHCb experiment.