NA62 spots two potential instances of rare particle decay
On September 23rd 2019, the NA62 experiment at CERN announced the measurement of other two K+ → π+ ν ν decays after the first one announced back in 2018 (NA62 sees hints of rare kaon decay).
Figure 1.2 – The penguin and box diagrams contributing to K+ → π+νν. For KL → π0νν the spectator quark is changed from u to d.;
These measurements are useful to shine light on dark matter, as hints of new physics beyond standard model can hide in rare decays as the charged kaon (K+) been investigated by NA62. The Standard Model predicts a very small fraction of K+ to decay into a positively charged pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair, therefore finding deviation on this well predicted branching ratio can point to new particles and perhaps discover more about the nature of dark matter.
So far NA62 has measured three of these decays in the dataset collected in 2016 and 2017, even if they seem few the physicists were already able to measure the K+ → π+ ν ν branching ration with unprecedented precision and put more stringent limit on new physics.
CAEN has contributed to NA62 in many different ways from the very first phases with dedicated R&D and various other products, including power supplies (PMT PS system for NA62) and data acquisition system for the Liquid Krypton Calorimeter (CREAM).
For more information about NA62 experiment please visit NA62 website.