Highlights of the KLOE experiment at DAFNE Strange mesons: a guided tour in the land of symmetries

jeudi 21 sept. 2006, 16:30 → 18:00 Europe/Paris

LPNHE, Paris Tour 33 RdC Salle Bernard Grossetete

Nicolas Regnault

After a brief review of the role of strange mesons in unveiling the symmetry laws of fundamental interactions, we describe the KLOE experiment at the Frascati DAFNE f-factory. In electron-positron collisions at the f mass, kaons are produced in a coherent state JP = 1--. We present new results on the decays of neutral and charged kaons: measurement of KS-KL interference, absolute branching ratios, the KL and K± lifetime, and a number of tests of quantum coherence, CP- and CPT-symmetries. Semileptonic decays of kaons are used to provide new measurements of the form factors, the Cabibbo angle and to test the unitarity of the CKM mixing matrix. The electron-positron annihilation cross section into hadrons is measured at energies below 1 GeV with the method of \"radiative return\", the results are used to evaluate the hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic moment. Measurements of f radiative decays to light mesons enrich the knowledge of their symmetries and their structure in the quark model.