Determining the CKM Unitarity Triangle From $B$ Decays to Charged Pions and Kaons

Abstract

Decay rates of $B^0(t)\to\pi^+\pi^-,~B^0\to\pi^- K^+,~B^+\to\pi^+ K^0~ (K_S\to\pi^+\pi^-$) and of charge-conjugate processes are studied within flavor SU(3) symmetry and first-order SU(3) breaking. We show that these measurements can determine with a reasonable accuracy the two angles, $\alpha$ and $\gamma$, of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle.