Introductory lectures (delivered at TASI, June 1994) on heavy quarks and heavy quark effective field theory. Applications to inclusive semileptonic decays and to interactions with light mesons are covered in detail.

We first review some aspects of the determination of the sides and angles of the unitarity triangle. We pay particular attention to theory shortcomings, and present many alternative proposals for the determination of |Vub| (which at present is problematic). We then turn our attention to the more general question: What have we learned so far about flavor physics and where do we go from here? We argue that the aim of Flavor Physics should be to establish or rule out Minimal Flavor Violating interactions up to a scale of 10 TeV.

As a preview to the conference I first make a brief account of the methods that are used by theorists in the context of Kaon physics. I then make two modest observations. First, that looking at non-Kaon physics may shed light on Kaon physics. As a case in point I argue that one can empirically find analogues of the ΔI = 1/2 rule in both D and B decays to two pseudoscalars. And second, that while in tests of fundamental principles the scale of putative new physics is often unknown a priori, there are some cases where it is known. As an example I discuss tests of Lorentz invariance and argue that, in the context of Doubly Special Relativity, the K0 - K̄0 mass difference is already sensitive to Planck scale effects. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.

This is a limited review and update of the status of Heavy Flavor Physics. After we review the flavor problem we discuss a number of topics: recent puzzles in purely leptonic D and B decays and their possible resolutions, mixing in neutral B and D mesons, the determination of |Vcb| and |Vub| from semileptonic decays, and we conclude with radiative B decays.

We review the theory of the determination of the CKM elements Vcb and Vub. Particular attention is paid to the determination of Vcb through inclusive semileptonic B decays to charm using a moment analysis, since this has shown most progress recently. A precise method for the determination of Vub via exclusive decays is described.

Talk presented at the Trieste Workshop on the Search for New Elementary Particles: Status and Prospects.

Two short introductory lectures on Flavor Physics delivered at CLASHEP 2015. Among included topics: The KM matrix and the KM model of CP-violation, Determination of KM Elements, FCNC and GIM, New Physics and Flavor, Neutral Meson Mixing and CP Asymmetries. Many problems for the student, and solutions to selected problems, included.

Introductory lectures (delivered at the VI Mexican School of Particles and Fields) on heavy quarks and heavy quark effective field theory. Applications to inclusive semileptonic decays and to interactions with light mesons are covered in detail.

The form factors of the flavor changing vector current between a $\bar q Q$-meson and the lightest $\bar q q$ (pseudoscalar-)meson are computed exactly and explicitly in the 't~Hooft model (planar QCD in $1+1$ dimensions) in the limit that the mass of $q$-quark vanishes.

CDF and D0 have reported a deviation from the predicted SM forward-backward asymmetry in tt- production at the Tevatron. BSM models that accommodate this observation must incorporate flavor physics and can lead to unacceptable levels of FCNC. We describe recent work on incorporating flavor naturally into these models, both for new physics mediated by scalars and by vectors, using the Minimal Flavor Violation principle. We then describe a new class of models that address the asymmetry, that use derivatively coupled spin-2 mediators. This type of interaction naturally suppresses FCNC. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.