Particle physics: CP violation in hyperon decays

Abstract

The primary research activities under this grant were in E871 (HyperCP) at Fermilab, a search for CP violation in hyperon decays which completed data taking in January, 2000. HyperCP is an experiment designed to perform a sensitive search for direct CP violation in the decays of cascade ({Xi}) and {Lambda} hyperons by looking for an asymmetry between particle and antiparticle decay parameters. The experiment is expected to achieve a sensitivity {approx}10{sup -4} in the decay parameters. Standard model predictions for this CP-violating asymmetry range from 0.3 to 5 x 10{sup -4}. A difference between the decay parameters for particle and antiparticle is direct evidence that CP symmetry is violated. A non-zero asymmetry would be the first evidence for CP violation outside of the K{sup o} system. Recent results from KTeV indicate a direct CP violation in K{sup o} decays, which suggests that CP violation will appear in other decays. In addition, we will look at a number of rare hyperon decays involving muons. These probe important new physics topics such as Majorana neutrinos and lepton number violating processes. The latter are of great current interest because new evidence for neutrino oscillations indicate lepton flavor violation does occur. Our data will lead to an improvement in the limits on branching ratios for these processes typically by three to four orders-of-magnitude. The muon detector construction and data resulting from it have been the responsibility of the Michigan group. We are now leading the analysis of the rare muon-related decay modes, and were responsible for the muon system and beam monitor upgrades for the 1999 run.