Detecting New Physics from CP-violating phase measurements in B decays

Abstract

The standard CKM model can be tested and New Physics detected using only CP-violating phase measurements in B decays. This requires the measurement of a phase factor which is small in the Standard Model, in addition to the usual large phases $\beta$ and $\gamma$. We also point out that identifying violations of the unitarity of the CKM matrix is rather difficult, and cannot be done with phase measurements alone.