NA62 experiment

The NA62 experiment (known as P-326 at the stage of proposal) is a planned particle physics experiment at the North Area of the SPS accelerator at CERN. It aims to start physics data taking in 2014, when it will become the first in the world to probe the decays of the charged kaon with probabilities down to 10⁻¹². The experiment's spokesperson is Augusto Ceccucci.

Goals

The experiment will be focused on precision tests of the Standard Model by studies of rare decays of charged kaons. The principal goal, for which the design has been optimized, is the measurement of the rate of the ultra-rare decay K⁺ → π⁺ + ν + ν with a precision of 10%, by detecting about 100 decay candiates with a low background in two years of data taking. This will lead to the determination of the CKM matrix element |V_td| with a precision better than 10%.^[1] This element relates very accurately the likelihood that top quarks decay to down quarks. The Particle Data Group's 2008 Review of Particle Physics lists |V_td| = 0.00874+0.00026
−0.00037.^[2]

See also

• NA48 experiment

References

Further reading

• "Proposal to measure the rare decay K⁺ → π⁺νν at the CERN SPS". CERN. 11 June 2005. CERN-SPSC-2005-013. http://na48.web.cern.ch/NA48/NA48-3/Documents/P326.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-28. 
• "NA62 Technical Design". CERN. December 2010. CERN NA62-10-07. http://na62.web.cern.ch/NA62/Documents/TechnicalDesign.html. Retrieved 2011-04-29. 
• Andreas Winhart (15 July 2009). "A precision test of lepton universality in K →lν decays by NA62 at CERN". EMG Seminar. http://goudzovs.web.cern.ch/goudzovs/ke2/seminar_ke2_andreas.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-28. 

External links

• NA62 website
• CERN Grey Book > NA48/3 experiment
• CERN Grey Book > NA62 experiment
• P-326/NA62 experiment TWiki Pages