Speaker
Dr
Tristan Sullivan
(Queen's University)
Description
The rare decay of the pion, to an electron and a neutrino, is an
important process in the Standard Model. The branching ratio of this
decay is one of the most precisely calculated weak interaction observ-
ables involving quarks. Measurement of the branching ratio provides
a sensitive test of lepton universality and tight constraints on many
new physics scenarios with mass reach up to 1000 TeV. The PIENU
experiment at TRIUMF aims to measure the branching ratio to a
precision of less than 0.1%. The status of the analysis, and prospects
for achieving the precision goal, will be presented. A secondary re-
sult, placing limits on the mixing of the muon neutrino with a heavy
neutrino, will be presented as well.
Author
Dr
Tristan Sullivan
(Queen's University)