Colloquium Seminar: Precision Experiments on Mirror Transitions
Speaker: Maxime Brodeur, University of Notre Dame
Location: Auditorium
Time: 14:00
Thanks to extensive experimental efforts that led to a precise determination of important superallowed pure Fermi transition experimental quantities, we now have a very precise value for Vud that leads to a stringent test of the CKM matrix unitarity. Despite this achievement, measurements in other less precise systems remain relevant as conflicting results could uncover unknown systematic effects or even new physics. One such system is the superallowed mixed transition, which can also help refine the same theoretical corrections used for pure Fermi transitions and hence improve the accuracy of Vud. However, as a corrected Ft-value determination from these systems requires the more challenging determination of the Fermi/Gamow-Teller mixing ratio, only five transitions, spreading from 19Ne to 37Ar, are currently fully characterized. In anticipation for the more precise (or even new) determination of the mixing ratio, there are currently efforts worldwide to obtain more precise and accurate experimental quantities. Recent precision measurements performed at the University of Notre Dame and at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory will be discussed.