This thesis reports on the final measurement of the flavor-mixing phase in decays of strange-bottom mesons (B_s) into J/psi and phi mesons performed in high-energy proton-antiproton collisions recorded by the Collider Experiment at Fermilab. Interference occurs between direct decays and decays following virtual particle-antiparticle transitions (B_s-antiB_s). The phase difference between transition amplitudes (“mixing phase”) is observable and extremely sensitive to contributions from non-standard-model particles or interactions that may be very hard to detect otherwise – a fact that makes the precise measurement of the B_s mixing phase one of the most important goals of particle physics. The results presented include a precise determination of the mixing phase and a suite of other important supplementary results. All measurements are among the most precise available from a single experiment and provide significantly improved constraints on the phenomenology of new particles and interactions.

CP violation was first observed in 1964, but only in 1999 did we gain much greater experimental insight. Direct CP violation finally appeared in the form of ε′/ε in the K system. Indirect CP violation in B → J/Ψ Ks decay, the raison d'être for construction of e+e- B factories, was first sniffed out at the proton-antiproton collider. The asymmetric B factories — BABAR at SLAC and BELLE at KEK — were completed, while the symmetric B factory at Cornell was upgraded to CLEO-III. It seems that everyone is positioning himself for the great competition on “B Physics and CP Violation”, racing to unravel the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, especially the size and origin of CP phases. The change of millennium provides a dramatic backdrop.To have intensive discussions at the technical level, to create broader interest in the subject, and to maximize interaction between experimenters and theorists, this book starts with the status of B factories: accelerator, detector and physics analysis. Following an overview of B physics and the CKM matrix, it delves into the details of lifetime, spectroscopy and decays, with even more specialized discussions on rare decays, direct and indirect CP violation, factorization and final state interactions, determination of unitarity phases, etc. Topics on ε′/ε, rare K decay, charm and hyperon systems, and various T, CP and CPT tests are also discussed at length. The book closes with the outlook for hadron machines and the prospects for new physics. A special feature is that there are two summary talks, one on experiment and the other on theory. The book is further augmented by two dozen excellent contributed talks.

This book offers the first strong evidence of the existence of CP violation in neutral B decays extracted from sophisticated B factories in the US and Japan. It also holds out the expectation of rare B decays and D, K physics in the near future. In addition, new physics beyond the Standard Model is described. Both experimental and theoretical points of view are given.

This 2nd edition is an extensive update of "B Decays?. The revisions are necessary because of the extensive amount of new data and new theoretical ideas. This book reviews what is known about b-quark decays and also looks at what can be learned in the future.The importance of this research area is increasing, as evidenced by the approval of the luminosity upgrade for CESR and the asymmetric B factories at SLAC and KEK, and the possibility of experiments at hadron colliders.The key experimental observations made thus far, measurement of the lifetimes of the different B species, B0-B0 mixing, the discovery of ?Penguin? mediated decays, and the extraction of the CKM matrix elements Vub and Vcb from semileptonic decays, as well as more mundane results, are described in great detail by the experimentalists who have been closely involved with making the measurements. Theoretical progress in understanding b-quark decays using HQET and lattice gauge techniques are described by theorists who have developed and used these techniques.Synthesizing the experimental and theoretical information, several articles discuss the implications for the ?Standard Model? and how further tests can be done using measurements of CP violation in the B system.

CP violation is one of the most subtle effects in the Standard Model of particle physics and may be the first clue to the physics that lies beyond. Charge conjugation, C, and parity, P, are symmetries of particle interactions. C corresponds to the operation of replacing a particle by its antiparticle, while P is the operation of mirror reflection. Before 1956, it was believed that these were also symmetries of the interactions of elementary particles. In 1956, C S Wu found evidence for P violation in the weak interaction. Theorists proposed that the combination of CP would be a symmetry of the weak interaction. In 1964, Christenson, Cronin, Fitch and Turlay found the first evidence for the violation of CP symmetry in the decays of kaons.Although Kobayashi and Maskawa then showed how the Standard Model can accommodate the observed CP violation, Wolfenstein pointed out that it is also possible that there is a new interaction in addition to the usual four, called the superweak interaction, which is responsible for the asymmetry. To test this idea, the observation of a different type of asymmetry, called direct CP violation, is required; in the kaon sector, very precise measurements of the ratio of kaon decay rates are necessary. In B decay modes where a second order weak process whimisically named “penguin” interferes with another suppressed, first order “tree” amplitude, it may also be possible to observe these direct CP-violating effects.B physics and CP violation is now one of the major growth areas in high energy physics. Nearly every major high energy physics laboratory now has a project underway to observe the large CP asymmetries expected in the B sector and to test the consistency of the Standard Model. The unitarity of the Kobayashi-Maskawa mixing matrix in the Standard Model implies the existence of three phases, called alpha, beta and gamma, which can be determined by the measurements of CP asymmetries in B decays. About 200 participants gathered in Hawaii in March 1997 to discuss the progress in the field, and this important book constitutes the proceedings of that conference.

Dealing with the CP violation, from quarks to leptons, this publication reviews the field, from both the theoretical and experimental point of view, while planning for the experimentation at LHC and considering possible facilities for kaon, B meson and neutrino physics.

A unique presentation of our current understanding of particle physics for researchers, advanced undergraduate and graduate students.