What if the odds of an event occurring were about one in ten billion? This is the case for the decay of a positively charged particle known as a kaon into another positively charged particle called a pion and a neutrino-antineutrino pair.
Yet, such a rare event, which has never been observed with certainty, is something that particle physicists really want to get their hands on.
The reason? The Standard Model predicts such one-in-ten-billion odds with an uncertainty of less than 10%. A deviation from this prediction, revealed by a precise measurement of the decay, could therefore be a clear indicator of physics beyond the Standard Model.
In a seminar taking place today at CERN, the NA62 team reports a candidate event of this ultra-rare kaon decay found using a new ‘in-flight decay’ approach.
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