Current Status of the CKM Matrix and the CP Violation

Abstract

These lectures give an introduction and the current status of flavour physics in the quark sector, with special attention to the CKM matrix and CP violation. We describe the measurements which contribute to the determination of the CKM matrix elements and how, together with important theoretical developments, they have significantly improved our knowledge on the flavour sector of the Standard Model. These lectures are complemented by the seminar of U. Mallik (see these proceedings) which describes in more details the most recent CP-violating related measurements by the B-factories. The results presented are up-to-date till winter 2004.