Discrete Ambiguities in the Measurement of the Weak Phase Gamma

TL;DR

This paper reveals that measuring the weak phase gamma via time-independent methods faces at least 8-fold discrete ambiguities, impacting experimental strategies and the potential for new physics discovery.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the discrete ambiguity in gamma measurement is at least 8-fold, exceeding previous estimates, and explores implications for B->DK decay methods.

Findings

Discrete ambiguity is at least 8-fold, not 4-fold.

Implications for experimental measurements of gamma.

Sensitivity and new physics potential assessed via Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract

Several time-independent methods have been devised for measuring the phase gamma of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa unitarity triangle. It is shown that such measurements generally suffer from discrete ambiguity which is at least 8-fold, not 4-fold as commonly stated. This has serious experimental implications, which are explored in methods involving B->DK decays. The measurement sensitivity and new physics discovery potential are estimated using a full Monte Carlo detector simulation with realistic background estimates.