The REDTOP project: Rare Eta Decays with a TPC for Optical Photons

Abstract

The / mesons are almost unique in the particle universe since they are Goldstone boson and the dynamics of their decays are strongly constrained. Because the and have all zero quantum numbers, decays that violate conservation laws can occur without interfering with a corresponding current. The integrated eta meson samples collected in earlier experiments have been less than 10 8 events, limiting considerably the search for such rare decays. The sample is even more scarce. A new experiment REDTOP, is being proposed at the proton booster of Fermilab with the intent of collecting more than 10 12 triggers/year for studies of rare decays. Such statistics are sufficient for investigating several symmetry violations, and for searching for new particles beyond the Standard Model. The physics program, the accelerator systems and the detector for REDTOP were presented in this conference.