Abstract: Using the spectral functions measured in tau decays, we investigate the actual numerical impact of duality violations on the extraction of the strong coupling. These effects are tiny in the standard alpha(s)(m(tau)(2)) determinations from integrated distributions of the hadronic spectrum with pinched weights, or from the total tau hadronic width. The pinched-weight factors suppress very efficiently the violations of duality, making their numerical effects negligible in comparison with the larger perturbative uncertainties. However, combined fits of alpha(s) and duality-violation parameters, performed with non-protected weights, are subject to large systematic errors associated with the assumed modelling of duality-violation effects. These uncertainties have not been taken into account in the published analyses, based on specific models of quark-hadron duality.

Abstract: The measurement of a large like-sign dimuon asymmetry A(SL)(b) by the D0 experiment at the Tevatron departs noticeably from Standard Model (SM) expectations and it may be interpreted as a hint of physics beyond the Standard Model contributing to Delta B not equal 0 transitions. In this work we analyze how the natural suppression of A(SL)(b) in the SM can be circumvented by new physics. We consider generic Standard Model extensions where the charged current mixing matrix is enlarged with respect to the usual 3 x 3 unitary Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, and show how, within this framework, a significant enhancement over Standard Model expectations for Ab SL is easily reachable through enhancements of the semileptonic asymmetries A(SL)(d) and A(SL)(s) of both B-d(0)- (B) over bar (0)(d) and B-s(0)- (B) over bar (0)(s) systems. Despite being insufficient to reproduce the D0 measurement, such deviations from SM expectations may be probed by the LHCb experiment.

Abstract: We present a comprehensive study of the determination of the strong coupling from tau decay, using the most recent release of the experimental ALEPH data. We critically review all theoretical strategies used in previous works and put forward various novel approaches which allow one to study complementary aspects of the problem. We investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods, trying to uncover their potential hidden weaknesses and test the stability of the obtained results under slight variations of the assumed inputs. We perform several determinations, using different methodologies, and find a very consistent set of results. All determinations are in excellent agreement, and allow us to extract a very reliable value for alpha(s)(m(tau)(2)). The main uncertainty originates in the pure perturbative error from unknown higher orders. Taking into account the systematic differences between the results obtained with the contour-improved perturbation theory and fixed-order perturbation theory prescriptions, we find alpha((nf=3))(s) (m(tau)(2)) = 0.328 +/- 0.013 which implies alpha((nf=5))(s) (M-Z(2)) = 0.1197 +/- 0.0015.