Particle Physics Seminar
Wednesday 12th May 2010 at 1:30pm
Poynting Small Lecture Theatre
(tea, coffee and biscuits served at 1:15pm)
Precision Test of Lepton Universality at the CERN NA62 Experiment
Evgueni Goudzovski (Birmingham)
Abstract
Measurement of the helicity suppressed ratio of charged kaon leptonic decay
rates BR(K --> e nu)/BR(K --> mu nu) has long been considered as a precise
test of lepton universality and the Standard Model (SM) description of weak
interactions. However it was realised recently that the suppression of the
SM contribution enhances the sensitivity to SUSY-induced effects to an
experimentally accessible level. The NA62 experiment at CERN has collected a
record number of over 10^5 K --> e nu decays during a dedicated run in 2007,
aiming at achieving a 0.5% precision. The experimental strategy, details of
the analysis and preliminary results, as well as the future prospects for
kaon physics at CERN will be discussed.