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Matthew Kirk

Publications and source records attributed to Matthew Kirk.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

On the ultimate precision of meson mixing observables

Meson mixing is considered to be an ideal candidate for new physics searches. Current experimental precision has greatly increased over the recent years, excelling in several cases the theoretical precision. A possible limit in the theoretical accuracy could be a hypothetical breakdown of quark-hadron duality. We propose a simple model for duality violations and give stringent bounds on such effects for mixing observables, indicating regions, where future measurements of $ΔΓ_d$, $a_{sl}^d$ and $a_{sl}^s$ would be clear signals of new physics. Finally, we turn our attention to the charm sector, and reveal that already a modest duality violation of about $20 \%$ could explain the huge difference between HQE predictions for D-mixing and experimental data.

hep-ph↗

One constraint to kill them all?

Many new physics models that explain the intriguing anomalies in the $b$-quark flavour sector are severely constrained by $B_s$-mixing, for which the Standard Model prediction and experiment agreed well until recently. The most recent FLAG average of lattice results for the non-perturbative matrix elements points, however, in the direction of a small discrepancy in this observable. Using up-to-date inputs from standard sources such as PDG, FLAG and one of the two leading CKM fitting groups to determine $ΔM_s^{\rm SM}$, we find a severe reduction of the allowed parameter space of $Z'$ and leptoquark models explaining the $B$-anomalies. Remarkably, in the former case the upper bound on the $Z'$ mass approaches dangerously close to the energy scales already probed by the LHC. We finally identify some model building directions in order to alleviate the tension with $B_s$-mixing.

hep-ph↗

Charming Dark Matter

We have considered a model of Dark Minimal Flavour Violation (DMFV), in which a triplet of dark matter particles couple to right-handed up-type quarks via a heavy colour-charged scalar mediator. By studying a large spectrum of possible constraints, and assessing the entire parameter space using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), we can place strong restrictions on the allowed parameter space for dark matter models of this type.

hep-ph↗