PIRSA:11070077

Measurement of the Pion Branching Ratio at TRIUMF : A Sensitive Probe in the Search for New Physics

Malbrunot, C. (2011). Measurement of the Pion Branching Ratio at TRIUMF : A Sensitive Probe in the Search for New Physics. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/11070077

Malbrunot, Chloe. Measurement of the Pion Branching Ratio at TRIUMF : A Sensitive Probe in the Search for New Physics. Perimeter Institute, Jul. 21, 2011, https://pirsa.org/11070077 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:11070077,
            doi = {10.48660/11070077},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/11070077},
            author = {Malbrunot, Chloe},
            keywords = {},
            language = {en},
            title = {Measurement of the Pion Branching Ratio at TRIUMF : A Sensitive Probe in the Search for New Physics},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2011},
            month = {jul},
            note = {PIRSA:11070077 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Chloe Malbrunot University of British Columbia

DOI 10.48660/11070077
Collection
Talk Type Conference

Abstract

Study of rare decays is an important approach for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). The branching ratio of the helicity suppressed p ? e? decay, is one of the most accurately calculated decay process involving hadrons and has so far provided the most stringent test of the hypothesis of electron-muon universality in weak interactions. The branching ratio has been calculated in the SM to better than 0.01% accuracy to be R = 1.2353(1).10^4 .The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF, which started taking physics data in September 2009, aims to reach an accuracy five times better than the previous PSI and TRIUMF experiments so as to confront the theoretical calculation at the level of 0.1%. If a deviation from the SM branching ratio is found, “new physics” beyond the SM, at potentially very high mass scales (up to 1000 TeV), could be revealed. Alternatively, sensitive constraints on hypotheses can be obtained for pseudoscalar or scalar interactions, or on the mass and couplings of heavy neutrinos.So far, around five millions pion to electron decay events have been accumulated by the PIENU experiment. Data taking will continue in 2011 to increase the statistics to the 10^7 level.The presentation will outline the physics motivations, describe the apparatus and techniques designed to achieve high precision and present the status of the analysis.