D^0-\bar{D}^0 Mixing and CP Violation in Neutral D-meson Decays

Abstract

D^0-\bar{D}^0 mixing at the detectable level or significant CP violation in the charm system may strongly signify the existence of new physics. In view of the large discovery potential associated with the fixed target experiments, the B-meson factories and the \tau-charm factories, we make a further study of the phenomenology of D^0-\bar{D}^0 mixing and CP violation in neutral $D$-meson decays. The generic formulas for the time-dependent and time-integrated decay rates of both coherent and incoherent D^0\bar{D}^0 events are derived, and their approximate expressions up to the second order of the mixing parameters x_D and y_D are presented. Explicitly we discuss D^0-\bar{D}^0 mixing and various CP-violating signals in neutral D decays to the semileptonic final states, the hadronic CP eigenstates, the hadronic non-CP eigenstates and the CP-forbidden states. A few non-trivial approaches to the separate determination of x_D and y_D and to the demonstration of direct and indirect CP asymmetries in the charm sector are suggested.