The NA62 experiment reports the branching ratio measurement $$ \mathrm{BR}\left({K}^{+}\to {\pi}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu}\right)=\left({10.6}_{-3.4}^{+4.0}\left|{}_{\mathrm{stat}}\right.\pm {0.9}_{\mathrm{syst}}\right)\times {10}^{-11} $$
BR
K
+
→
π
+
ν
ν
¯
=
10.6
−
3.4
+
4.0
stat
±
0.9
syst
×
10
−
11
at 68% CL, based on the observation of 20 signal candidates with an expected background of 7.0 events from the total data sample collected at the CERN SPS during 2016–2018. This provides evidence for the very rare K+→$$ {\pi}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu} $$
π
+
ν
ν
¯
decay, observed with a significance of 3.4σ. The experiment achieves a single event sensitivity of (0.839 ± 0.054) × 10−11, corresponding to 10.0 events assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of (8.4 ± 1.0) × 10−11. This measurement is also used to set limits on BR(K+→ π+X), where X is a scalar or pseudo-scalar particle. Details are given of the analysis of the 2018 data sample, which corresponds to about 80% of the total data sample.
We investigate the influence of a strong laser electromagnetic field on the α-decay rate by using the Hennenberger frame of reference. We introduce an adimensional parameter D=S_{0}/R_{0}, where R_{0} is the geometrical nuclear radius and S_{0}∼sqrt[I]/ω^{2} is a length parameter depending on the laser intensity I and frequency ω. We show that the barrier penetrability has a strong increase for intensities corresponding to D>D_{crit}=1, due to the fact that the resulting Coulomb potential becomes strongly anisotropic even for spherical nuclei. As a consequence, the contribution of the monopole term increases the barrier penetrability by 2 orders of magnitude, while the total contribution has an effect of 6 orders of magnitude at D∼3D_{crit}. In the case of deformed nuclei, the electromagnetic field increases the penetrability by an additional order of magnitude for a quadrupole deformation β_{2}∼0.3. The influence of the electromagnetic field can be expressed in terms of a shifted Geiger-Nuttal law by a term depending on S_{0} and deformation.
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