In fundamental particle physics, CP violation is a violation of CP symmetry (charge conjugation parity symmetry). The phenomenon of CP violation arises within the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics through the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mechanism, which is highly successful in describing the experimental data within the current precision. However, extra sources of CP violation are needed to understand the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.
The study of charmless decays of B mesons, i.e. decays to final states that do not contain charm or charmonia hadrons, is a powerful approach to search for new sources of CP violation beyond the SM. Three-body decays are of particular interest as they offer a unique environment to study the variation of the CP violation over the phase space. The phase space of such a decay is described by a Dalitz plot, the two-dimensions of which are given by the invariant masses squared of two of the three final state particles (e.g. m2(AB) vs. m2(AC) for the decay M ->ABC). The Dalitz-plot analysis technique, in which the distribution of decays across the phase space is described by a model of the hadronic dynamics, provides full information about the relative phases of decay amplitudes. The LHCb experiment has collected unprecedented samples of three-body charmless B meson decays, which allows them to be studied with the precision needed to test the SM. Four different decays are studied in the project: B+ -> pi+ pi+ pi-, B+ -> K+ pi+ pi-, B+ -> pi+K+K- and B+ -> K+K+K-.