arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Christoph Bobeth.
Rare B decays allow to investigate fundamental interactions regarding their flavor, chiral, Dirac and CP properties. In anticipation of the large data samples of exclusive B decays into muons from the forthcoming LHC experiments, in particular LHCb, as well as possible super flavor factories, we review the theoretical status and outline future opportunities to explore the borders of the Standard Model and beyond.
The decay bar B -> bar K* (-> bar K pi) l+ l- offers great opportunities to explore the physics at and above the electroweak scale by means of an angular analysis. We investigate the physics potential of the seven CP asymmetries plus the asymmetry in the rate, working at low dilepton mass using QCD factorization at next-to leading order (NLO). The b ->s CP asymmetries are doubly Cabibbo-suppressed \lesssim 1 % in the Standard Model and its extensions where the CKM matrix is the only source of CP violation. Three CP asymmetries are T-odd, and can be O(1) in the presence of non-standard CP violation. The T-even asymmetries can reach O(0.1), limited by the small strong phases in the large recoil region. We furthermore point out an easy way to measure CP phases from time-integrated, untagged bar B_d, B_d -> K* (-> K0 pi0) l+ l- and bar B_s,B_s -> phi (-> K+ K-) l+ l- decays. Analyses of these CP asymmetries can rule out, or further support the minimal description of CP violation through the CKM mechanism. Experimental studies are promising for (super) flavor factories and at hadron colliders.
We model-independently analyze the angular distributions of B -> K ll decays, l = e, mu, for low dilepton mass using QCD factorization. Besides the decay rate, we study the forward-backward asymmetry A_FB^l and a further observable, F_H^l, which gives rise to a flat term in the angular distribution. We find that in the Standard Model F_H^l ~ m_l^2, hence vanishing F_H^e and F_H^mu of around 2% (exact value depends on cuts) with a very small theoretical uncertainty of a few percent. We also give predictions for R_K, the ratio of B -> K mu mu to B -> K ee decay rates. We analytically show using large recoil symmetry relations that in the Standard Model R_K equals one up to lepton mass corrections of the order 10^(-4). The New Physics reach of the observables from the B -> K ll angular analysis is explored together with R_K and the B_s -> ll and B -> X_s ll branching ratios for both l = e and l = mu. We find substantial room for signals from (pseudo-) scalar and tensor interactions beyond the Standard Model. Experimental investigations of the B -> K mu mu angular distributions are suitable for the LHC environment and high luminosity B factories, where also studies of the electron modes are promising.
We study the branching ratios of rare K and B decays in models with minimal flavour violation, using the presently available information from the universal unitarity triangle analysis and from the measurements of Br(B -> X_s gamma), Br(B -> X_s l^+l^-) and Br(K^+ -> pi^+ nu nubar). We find the following upper bounds: Br(K^+ -> pi^+ nu nubar)< 11.9 10^{-11}, Br(K_L -> pi^0 nu nubar)< 4.6 10^{-11}, Br(K_L -> mu mubar)_{SD}< 1.4 10^{-9}, Br(B -> X_s nu nubar)< 5.2 10^{-5}, Br(B -> X_d nu nubar)< 2.2 10^{-6}, Br(B_s -> mu mubar)< 7.4 10^{-9}, Br(B_d -> mu mubar)< 2.2 10^{-10} at 95 % probability. We analyze in detail various possible scenarios with positive or negative interference of Standard Model and New Physics contributions, and show how an improvement of experimental data corresponding to the projected 2010 B factory integrated luminosities will allow to disentangle and test these different possibilities. Finally, anticipating that subsequently the leading role in constraining this kind of new physics will be taken over by the rare decays K^+ -> pi^+ nu nubar, K_L -> pi^0 nu nubar and B_{s,d} -> mu mubar, that are dominated by the Z^0 -penguin function C, we also present plots for several branching ratios as functions of C . We point out an interesting triple correlation between K^+ -> pi^+ nu nubar, B -> X_s gamma and B -> X_s l^+l^- present in MFV models.
We present the results of the calculation of QCD corrections to the matching conditions for the Wilson coefficients of operators mediating the transition b->s l^+l^- in the context of the MSSM. Within a scenario with decoupled heavy gluino the calculated contributions together with those present already in the literature allow for the first time a complete NNLO analysis of B->X_s l^+l^-. We study the impact of the QCD corrections and the reduction of renormalization scale dependencies for the dilepton invariant mass distribution and the forward-backward asymmetry in the inclusive decay B->X_s l^+l^- restricting the analysis to the "low-s" region and small values of tan(beta). The NNLO calculation allows to decrease the theoretical uncertainties related to the renormalization scale dependence below the size of supersymmetric effects in B->X_s l^+l^- depending on their magnitude. While it will be difficult to distinguish the MSSM expectations for the branching ratio from the Standard Model ones, this can become possible in the dilepton invariant mass distribution depending on the MSSM parameters and \hat{s}. In this respect the position of the zero of the forward-backward asymmetry s_0 is even more promising.
We calculate two-loop matching conditions for all the operators that are relevant to B -> X_s l^+ l^- decay in the Standard Model. In effect, we are able to remove the +_16% uncertainty in the decay spectrum, which was mainly due to the renormalization-scale dependence of the top-quark mass. We find 1.46 * 10^-6 for the branching ratio integrated in the domain 0.05 < m_{l^+l^-}^2/m_b^2 < 0.25, for l= e or mu. There remains around 13% perturbative uncertainty in this quantity, while the non-perturbative effects are expected to be smaller.
We evaluate matching conditions for the Wilson coefficients of operators mediating the $b \to s γ$ and $b \to s gluon$ transitions in a large class of extensions of the Standard Model. The calculation is performed at the leading order in flavor-changing couplings and includes two-loop QCD corrections. These corrections can be numerically important when approximate cancellations occur among the new physics contributions and/or the SM one.