Model-independent access to the structure of quark flavor mixing

We show that the observed pattern of quark flavor mixing, such as vertical bar V-us vertical bar similar or equal to vertical bar V-cd vertical bar, vertical bar V-cb vertical bar similar or equal to vertical bar V-ts vertical bar, vertical bar V-cd/V-td vertical bar similar or equal to vertical bar V-cs/V-ts vertical bar similar or equal to vertical bar V-tb/V-cb vertical bar, and vertical bar V-ub/V-cb vertical bar < vertical bar V-td/V-ts vertical bar, can essentially be understood in the chiral an heavy quark mass limits. In particular, the phenomenologically successful relations vertical bar V-ub/V-cb vertical bar similar to root m(u)/m(c) and vertical bar V-td/V-ts vertical bar similar or equal to root m(d)/m(s) can be reasonably conjectured in the m(b) -> infinity and m(t) -> infinity limits, respectively. We stress that the strength of weak CP violation in the quark sector is determined by the moduli of the four corner elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. A comparison between strong and weak CP-violating effects in the standard model is also made. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.86.113006http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000312293500001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Astronomy & AstrophysicsPhysics, Particles & FieldsSCI(E)4ARTICLE11null8