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We present an up-to-date profile of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix with emphasis on the interpretation of recent CP-violation results from the B factories. For this purpose, we review all relevant experimental and theoretical inputs from the contributing domains of electroweak interaction. We give the “standard” determination of the apex of the Unitarity Triangle, namely the Wolfenstein parameters \\(\\overline\\rho\\) and \\(\\overline\\eta\\), by means of a global CKM fit. The fit is dominated by the precision measurement of \\(\\sin 2 \\beta\\) by the B factories. A detailed numerical and graphical study of the impact of the results is presented. We propose to include \\(\\sin 2\\alpha\\) from the recent measurement of the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in \\(B^0\\to\\rho^ + \\rho^-\\), using isospin relations to discriminate the penguin contribution. The constraint from \\(\\varepsilon^\\prime/\\varepsilon\\) is discussed. We study the impact from the branching fraction measurement of the rare kaon decay \\(K^ + \\to\\pi^ + \\nu\\overline\\nu\\), and give an outlook into the reach of a future measurement of \\(K^0_L\\to\\pi^0\\nu\\overline\\nu\\). The B system is investigated in detail. We display the constraint on \\(2\\beta + \\gamma\\) and \\(\\gamma\\) from \\(B^0\\to D^{(*)\\pm}\\pi^\\mp\\) and \\(B^ + \\to D^{(*)0}K^ + \\) decays, respectively. A significant part of this paper is dedicated to the understanding of the dynamics of B decays into \\(\\pi\\pi\\), \\(K\\pi\\), \\(\\rho\\pi\\), \\(\\rho\\rho\\) and modes related to these by flavor symmetry. Various phenomenological approaches and theoretical frameworks are discussed. We find a remarkable agreement of the \\(\\pi\\pi\\) and \\(K\\pi\\) data with the other constraints in the unitarity plane when the hadronic matrix elements are calculated within QCD Factorization, where we apply a conservative treatment of the theoretical uncertainties. A global fit of QCD Factorization to all \\(\\pi\\pi\\) and \\(K\\pi\\) data leads to precise predictions of the related observables. However sizable phenomenological power corrections are preferred. Using an isospin-based phenomenological parameterization, we analyze separately the \\(B\\to K\\pi\\) decays, and the impact of electroweak penguins in response to recent discussions. We find that the present data are not sufficiently precise to constrain either electroweak parameters or hadronic amplitude ratios. We do not observe any unambiguous sign of New Physics, whereas there is some evidence for potentially large non-perturbative rescattering effects. Finally we use a model-independent description of a large class of New Physics effects in both \\(B^0\\overline B^0\\) mixing and B decays, namely in the \\(b\\to d\\) and \\(b\\to s\\) gluonic penguin amplitudes, to perform a new numerical analysis. Significant non-standard corrections cannot be excluded yet, however Standard Model solutions are favored in most cases. In the appendix to this paper we propose a frequentist method to extract a confidence level on \\(\\Delta m_s\\) from the experimental information on \\(B^0_s \\overline B_s^0\\) oscillation. In addition we describe a novel approach to combine potentially inconsistent measurements. All results reported in this paper have been obtained with the numerical analysis package CKMfitter, featuring the frequentist statistical approach Rfit.

The direct CP violation parameter Re(epsilon'/epsilon) has been measured from the decay rates of neutral kaons into two pions using the NA48 detector at the CERN SPS. With 3.3 million KL->pi0pi0 events collected during the 1998 and 1999 running periods, a result of Re(epsilon'/epsilon) = (15.0 +- 2.7)x10-4 has been obtained. The result combined with the published 1997 sample is Re(epsilon'/epsilon) = (15.3 +- 2.6)x10-4.

Lectures presented at the 1st CERN Asia-Europe-Pacific School of High-Energy Physics, Fukuoka, Japan, 14-27 October 2012. A pedagogical selection of topics in probability and statistics is presented. Choice and emphasis are driven by the author's personal experience, predominantly in the context of physics analyses using experimental data from high-energy physics detectors.

We report on a precision measurement of the ratio \\({\\cal R}_{\\tau\\mu}^{\\Upsilon(3S)} = {\\cal B}(\\Upsilon(3S)\\to\\tau^+\\tau^-)/{\\cal B}(\\Upsilon(3S)\\to\\mu^+\\mu^-)\\) using data collected with the BaBar detector at the SLAC PEP-II \\(e^+e^-\\) collider. The measurement is based on a 28 fb\\(^{-1}\\) data sample collected at a center-of-mass energy of 10.355 GeV corresponding to a sample of 122 million \\(\\Upsilon(3S)\\) mesons. The ratio is measured to be \\({\\cal R}_{\\tau\\mu}^{\\Upsilon(3S)} = 0.966 \\pm 0.008_\\mathrm{stat} \\pm 0.014_\\mathrm{syst}\\) and is in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 0.9948 within 2 standard deviations. The uncertainty in \\({\\cal R}_{\\tau\\mu}^{\\Upsilon(3S)}\\) is almost an order of magnitude smaller than the only previous measurement.

Dalitz-plot analyses of \\(B\\rightarrow K\\pi\\pi\\) decays provide direct access to decay amplitudes, and thereby weak and strong phases can be disentangled by resolving the interference patterns in phase space between intermediate resonant states. A phenomenological isospin analysis of \\(B\\rightarrow K^*(\\rightarrow K\\pi)\\pi\\) decay amplitudes is presented exploiting available amplitude analyses performed at the Babar, Belle and LHCb experiments. A first application consists in constraining the CKM parameters thanks to an external hadronic input. A method, proposed some time ago by two different groups and relying on a bound on the electroweak penguin contribution, is shown to lack the desired robustness and accuracy, and we propose a more alluring alternative using a bound on the annihilation contribution. A second application consists in extracting information on hadronic amplitudes assuming the values of the CKM parameters from a global fit to quark flavour data. The current data yields several solutions, which do not fully support the hierarchy of hadronic amplitudes usually expected from theoretical arguments (colour suppression, suppression of electroweak penguins), as illustrated from computations within QCD factorisation. Some prospects concerning the impact of future measurements at LHCb and Belle II are also presented. Results are obtained with the CKMfitter analysis package, featuring the frequentist statistical approach and using the Rfit scheme to handle theoretical uncertainties.

Using the entire BaBar \\(\\Upsilon(4S)\\) data set, the first two-dimensional unbinned angular analysis of the semileptonic decay \\(\\overline{B} \\rightarrow D \\ell^- \\overline{\\nu}_\\ell\\) is performed, employing hadronic reconstruction of the tag-side \\(B\\) meson from \\(\\Upsilon(4S)\\to B\\overline{B}\\). Here, \\(\\ell\\) denotes the light charged leptons \\(e\\) and \\(\\mu\\). A novel data-driven signal-background separation procedure with minimal dependence on simulation is developed. This procedure preserves all multi-dimensional correlations present in the data. The expected \\(\\sin^2\\theta_\\ell\\) dependence of the differential decay rate in the Standard Model is demonstrated, where \\(\\theta_\\ell\\) is the lepton helicity angle. Including input from the latest lattice QCD calculations and previously available experimental data, the underlying form factors are extracted using both model-independent (BGL) and dependent (CLN) methods. Comparisons with lattice calculations show flavor SU(3) symmetry to be a good approximation in the \\(B_{(s)}\\to D_{(s)}\\) sector. Using the BGL results, the CKM matrix element \\(|V_{cb}|=(41.09\\pm 1.16)\\times 10^{-3}\\) and the Standard Model prediction of the lepton-flavor universality violation variable \\(\\mathcal{R}(D)=0.300\\pm 0.004\\), are extracted. The value of \\(|V_{cb}|\\) from \\(\\overline{B} \\rightarrow D \\ell^- \\overline{\\nu}_\\ell\\) tends to be higher than that extracted using \\(\\overline{B} \\rightarrow D \\ell^- \\overline{\\nu}_\\ell\\). The Standard Model \\(\\mathcal{R}(D)\\) calculation is at a \\(1.97\\sigma\\) tension with the latest HFLAV experimental average.

A new mechanism has been proposed to simultaneously explain the presence of dark matter and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. This scenario predicts exotic \\(B\\) meson decays into a baryon and a dark sector anti-baryon (\\(\\psi_D\\)) with branching fractions accessible at \\(B\\) factories. We present a search for \\(B \\rightarrow \\Lambda \\psi_D\\) decays using data collected by the \\(BABAR\\) experiment at SLAC. This reaction is identified by fully reconstructing the accompanying \\(B\\) meson and requiring the presence of a single \\(\\Lambda\\) baryon in the remaining particles. No significant signal is observed, and bounds on the \\(B \\rightarrow \\Lambda \\psi_D\\) branching fraction are derived in the range \\(0.13 - 5.2\\times 10^{-5}\\) for \\(1.0 < m_{\\psi_D} < 4.2\\) GeV/\\(c^{2}\\). These results set strong constraints on the parameter space allowed by the theory.