NA62 objectives
The NA62 experiment aims to measure the very rare kaon decay K+ -> pi+nu nu-bar at the CERN SPS , to make a decisive test of the Standard Model (SM) by extracting, through a 10% measurement, the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM) parameter |Vtd |.
In order to reach its main goal, NA62 needs to collect about 100 in-flight K+ -> pi+nu nu-bar events, and to keep the total systematic uncertainty small. Assuming a 10% signal acceptance and a branching ratio of 10-10, at least 1013 K+ decays are required.
To keep the systematic uncertainty small requires a rejection factor, for generic kaon decays, in the order of 1012 and the possibility to measure efficiencies and background suppression factors directly from data.
In addition to the main objective, the NA62 experimental setup will offer the chance to perform many measurements on rare and medium-rare kaon decays. In particular, the good energy resolution for photons will allow the study the radiative kaon decays with unprecedented precision.