Physics (Internal)

Results from, and Prospects for, the NA62 (Very Rare Kaon Decay-in-Flight) Experiment at CERN

This event is part of the HEE Seminar Series.

Abstract: The NA62 Experiment at CERN was commissioned in 2015, and collected data in 2016, 2017, and 2018, recording ~5 x 10^12 kaon decays in-flight. From the 2016 and 2017 data, three candidate events in the K+ -> pi+ nu nu_bar mode have been identified, of which 1.65 +/- 0.31 are expected to be background. These data have also yielded results on other rare kaon decay and exotic processes. We describe these, as well as ongoing analyses of the the 2018 dataset (twice the size of 2017's) and efforts to improve signal efficiency and mitigate upstream backgrounds in anticipation of additional data taking to begin in 2021.