Novel Approaches to Determine B^± and B^0 Meson Production Fractions

We propose novel methods to determine Gamma(4S) -> B+B- and Gamma(4S) -> B-0(B) over bar (0) decay rates. The precision to which they and their ratio are known yields at present a limiting uncertainty around 2% in measurements of absolute B decay rates, and thus in a variety of applications, such as precision determinations of elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and flavor-symmetry relations. The new methods we propose are based in one case on exploiting the Gamma(5S) datasets, in the other case on the different average number of charged tracks in B-perpendicular to and B-0 decays. We estimate future sensitivities using these methods and discuss possible measurements of f(d)/f(u) at the (HL-)LHC.