Flavour Physics and CP Violation : Expecting the LHC

The starting point of these lectures is an introduction to the weak interactions of quarks and the Standard-Model description of CP violation, where the central role is played by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and the corresponding unitarity triangles. Since the B-meson system governs the stage of (quark) flavour physics and CP violation, it is our main focus: we shall classify B-meson decays, introduce the theoretical tools to deal with them, investigate the requirements for non-vanishing CP-violating asymmetries, and discuss the main strategies to explore CP violation and the preferred avenues for physics beyond the Standard Model to enter. This formalism allows us then to discuss important benchmark modes, where we will also address the question of how much space for new-physics effects in the B studies at the LHC is left by the recent experimental results from the B factories and the Tevatron.