Lattice QCD inputs to the CKM unitarity triangle analysis

TL;DR

This paper provides updated lattice QCD inputs for the CKM unitarity triangle analysis, highlighting a tension in the data that could suggest new physics in kaon mixing.

Contribution

It offers comprehensive lattice QCD averages for key hadronic parameters and assesses their impact on CKM unitarity triangle fits and potential new physics indications.

Findings

Identifies a 2-3 sigma tension in the unitarity triangle.

Suggests new physics in kaon mixing is favored by current data.

Provides lattice averages suitable for future phenomenological analyses.

Abstract

We perform a global fit to the CKM unitarity triangle using the latest experimental and theoretical constraints. Our emphasis is on the hadronic weak matrix elements that enter the analysis, which must be computed using lattice QCD or other nonperturbative methods. Realistic lattice QCD calculations which include the effects of the dynamical up, down, and strange quarks are now available for all of the standard inputs to the global fit. We therefore present lattice averages for all of the necessary hadronic weak matrix elements. We attempt to account for correlations between lattice QCD results in a reasonable but conservative manner: whenever there are reasons to believe that an error is correlated between two lattice calculations, we take the degree of correlation to be 100%. These averages are suitable for use as inputs both in the global CKM unitarity triangle fit and other phenomenological analyses. In order to illustrate the impact of the lattice averages, we make Standard Model predictions for the parameters BK, |Vcb|, and |Vub|/|Vcb|. We find a (2-3) sigma tension in the unitarity triangle, depending upon whether we use the inclusive or exclusive determination of |Vcb|. If we interpret the tension as a sign of new physics in either neutral kaon or B mixing, we find that the scenario with new physics in kaon-mixing is preferred by present data.