A Novel Formulation of Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa Matrix Renormalization

We present a gauge-independent quark mass counterterm for the on-shell renormalization of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix in the Standard Model that is directly expressed in terms of the Lorentz-invariant self-energy functions, and automatically satisfies the hermiticity constraints of the mass matrix. It is very convenient for practical applications and leads to a gauge-independent CKM counterterm matrix that preserves unitarity and satisfies other highly desirable theoretical properties, such as flavor democracy.