A model proposed in 2004 using the non-Abelian discrete symmetry S3 for understanding the flavor structure of quarks and leptons is updated, with special focus on the quark and scalar sectors. We show how the approximate residual symmetries of this m
odel explain both the pattern of the quark mixing matrix and why the recently observed particle of 126 GeV at the Large Hadron Collider is so much like the one Higgs boson of the Standard Model. We identify the strongest phenomenological bounds on the scalar masses of this model, and predict a possibly observable decay b -> s tau- mu+, but not b -> s tau+ mu-.
Within the Standard model with the 4th generation quarks b and t we have analyzed CP-violating flavor changing neutral current processes t -> cX; b-> sX, b-> bX,t-> cX, and t-> tX, with X=Z,H,gamma,g, by constructing and employing global, unique fit
for the 4th generation mass mixing matrix CKM4 at 300 < m_t < 700 GeV. All quantities appearing in the CKM4 were subject to our fitting procedure. We have found that our fit produces the following CP partial rate asymmetry dominance: a_CP(b-> s(Z,H,gamma,g))= (90,73,52,30)%, at m_t ~ 300,300,380,400 GeV, respectively. From the experimental point of view the best decay mode, out of the above four, is certainly b-> s gamma, because of the presence of a clean high energy single final state photon. We have also obtained relatively large a_CP(t -> c g) ~ 15 (10)% for t running in the loops with the mass m_t= 650(500) GeV. There are fair chances that the 4th generation quarks will be discovered at Tevatron or LHC and that some of their decay rates shall be measured. If b and t exist at energies we assumed, with well executed tagging, large a_CP could be found too.
We present a QCD light-cone sum rule (LCSR) estimation of the B -> pi, B -> K, and Bs -> K form factors calculating gluon radiative corrections at next-to-leading order. The MS-bar b-quark mass is used, instead of the one-loop pole mass employed in t
he previous analyses. For B -> K and Bs -> K form factors the SU(3)-symmetry breaking corrections are included, both in the hard-scattering kernels and in the distribution amplitudes (DAs). By combining the predicted value for f^+_{Bpi}(0) with the product |Vub f^+_{Bpi}| extracted from the B -> pi l nu measurement, we obtain the LCSR prediction for Vub CKM matrix element.
We present an improved QCD light-cone sum rule (LCSR) calculation of the B -> K and Bs -> K form factors, by including SU(3)-symmetry breaking corrections. We use recently updated K-meson distribution amplitudes which incorporate the complete SU(3)-b
reaking structure. By applying the method of the direct integration in the complex plane, which is presented in a detail, the analytical extraction of the imaginary parts of LCSR hard-scattering amplitudes becomes unnecessary and therefore the complexity of the calculation is greatly reduced. The values obtained for the relevant B_{(s)} -> K form factors are as follows: f^+_{BK}(0)= 0.36^{+0.05}_{-0.04}, f^+_{B_sK}(0)= 0.30^{+0.04}_{-0.03} and f^T_{BK}(0)= 0.38pm 0.05, f^T_{B_sK}(0)= 0.30pm 0.05. By comparing with the B -> pi form factors extracted recently by the same method, we find the following SU(3) violation among the B -> light form factors: f^+_{BK}(0)/f^+_{Bpi}(0) = 1.38^{+0.11}_{-0.10}, f^+_{B_sK}(0)/f^+_{Bpi}(0) = 1.15^{+0.17}_{-0.09}, f^T_{BK}(0)/f^T_{Bpi}(0) = 1.49^{+0.18}_{-0.06} and f^T_{B_sK}(0)/f^T_{Bpi}(0) = 1.17^{+0.15}_{-0.11}.
