B. Wrona

Development of the kaon tagging system for the NA62 experiment at CERN

The NA62 experiment at CERN aims to make a precision measurement of the ultra-rare decay K+→π+νν¯, and relies on a differential Cherenkov detector (KTAG) to identify charged kaons at an average rate of 50 MHz in a 750 MHz unseparated hadron beam. The experimental sensitivity of NA62 to K-decay branching ratios (BR) of 10−11 requires a time resolution for the KTAG of better than 100 ps, an efficiency better than 95% and a contamination of the kaon sample that is smaller than 10−4. A prototype version of the detector was tested in 2012, during the first NA62 technical run, in which the required resolution of 100 ps was achieved and the necessary functionality of the light collection system and electronics was demonstrated.

The kaon identification system in the NA62 experiment at CERN SPS

The main goal of the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS accelerator is to measure the branching fraction of the ultra-rare decay K+→π+ν with 10% accuracy. Key aspects of the detector configuration are described, with emphasis on tagging and timestamping the minority kaons in the high intensity, unseparated, charged-particle beam using KTAG, an upgraded version of a CEDAR differential Cherenkov detector. Data are presented showing that KTAG was successfully commissioned at CERN in November 2012.