Kaon Physics: Theory Overview

Kaon decays have played a key role in the construction of the Standard Model and continue to be an important testing ground of the electroweak flavour theory. They can provide new signals of CP-violation phenomena and, perhaps, a window into physics beyond the Standard Model. The interplay of long-distance QCD effects in strangeness-changing transitions can be analyzed, combining the short-distance Operator Product Expansion with Chiral Perturbation Theory techniques. A brief overview is presented, focusing on a few selected decay modes. A more detailed and comprehensive review can be found in arXiv:1107.6001.