The brown muck of b^0 and b^0_s mixing: beyond the standard model

Standard Model contributions to neutral B meson mixing begin at the one loop level where they are further suppressed by a combination of the GIM mechanism and Cabibbo suppression. This combination makes B meson mixing a promising probe of new physics, where as yet undiscovered particles and/or interactions can participate in the virtual loops. Relating underlying interactions of the mixing process to experimental observation requires a precise calculation of the non-perturbative process of hadronization, characterized by hadronic mixing matrix elements. This thesis describes a calculation of the hadronic mixing matrix elements relevant to a large class of new physics models. The calculation is performed via lattice QCD using the MILC collaboration’s gauge configurations with 2 + 1 dynamical sea quarks