[en] In this paper the recent results of the NA62 Collaboration in the field of kaon decays will be reviewed. The goals pursued using the data collected in the 2007 run will be exposed, as well as the experimental solutions devised for the future experiment on the study of the ultra-rare K⁺ → π⁺νν decay, expected to take data in 2010-2111 and recently approved by INFN.

[en] The NA48/2 experiment at CERN [V. Fanti et al., Nucl. Instrum. Meth.A574 433-471 (2007).] collected ∼18⋅10⁹ charged kaon decays during the years 2003/4. Along with the primary goals of the collaboration, i.e., the measurement of the CP-violating asymmetry in the K^±→π^±π⁺π^- and K^±→π^±π⁰π⁰ channels, the collected data allowed to perform many other interesting analyses. In this paper the measurement of the K^±→e^±νπ⁺π^- and K^±→e^±νπ⁰π⁰ decays' branching ratios (BR) and form factors will be reviewed.

[en] The computation of pion scattering lengths a00 and a02 has been addressed in two independent analyses by the NA48/2 collaboration: the variation of the phase shift δ = δ00-δ11 in K±→π±π±e±ν (Ke4) decay and the fit of a cusp-like structure in the Mπ0π02 distribution of the K±→π±π0π0 decay

[en] The NA62 experiment [1] at the CERN SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) accelerator studies the ultra-rare decays of charged kaons. The high-resolution Liquid Krypton (LKr) electromagnetic calorimeter of the former NA48 experiment [2] is a key component of the experiment photon-veto system. The new LKr readout system comprises 14,000 14-bit ADC acquisition channels, 432×1 Gbit Ethernet data request and readout links routed by 28×10 Gbit network switches to the experiment computer farm, and timing, trigger and control (TTC) distribution system. This paper presents the architecture of the LKr readout and TTC systems, the overall performance and the first successfully collected experiment physics data

[en] The NA62 experiment [1] at CERN SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) accelerator aims at studying Kaon decays with high precision. The high resolution Liquid Krypton (LKr) calorimeter, built for the NA48 [2] experiment, is a crucial part of the experiment photon-veto system; to cope with the new requirements, the back-end electronics of the LKr had to be completely renewed. Due to the huge number of the calorimeter readout channels ( ∼ 14 K) and the maintenance requirement over 10 years of the experiment lifetime, the decision to sub-contract the development and production to industry was taken in 2011. This paper presents the primary test results of the Calorimeter REAdout Module (CREAM) [3] prototype delivered by the manufacturer in March 2013. All essential features, analog performance, data processing and readout, are covered

[en] The main goal of the NA62 experiment at CERN is to measure the branching ratio of the ultra-rare K⁺→π⁺νν-bar decay, collecting about 100 events to test the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Readout uniformity of sub-detectors, scalability, efficient online selection and lossless high rate readout are key issues. The TDCB and TEL62 boards are the common blocks of the NA62 TDAQ system. TDCBs measure hit times from sub-detectors, TEL62s process and store them in a buffer, extracting only those requested by the trigger system following the matching of trigger primitives produced inside TEL62s themselves. During the NA62 Technical Run at the end of 2012 the TALK board has been used as prototype version of the L0 Trigger Processor

[en] UV irradiation technology as a membrane bioreactor (MBR) post-treatment was investigated and assessed. Both UV low pressure (LP) and medium pressure (MP) lamps were examined. The technology was installed in a pilot plant treating hospital wastewater to provide the study with adequate field data. The effect of the UV irradiation was enhanced with varying dosages of H₂O₂ to establish an advanced oxidation process (AOP). The efficiency of the pharmaceutical removal process was assessed by examining 14 micropollutants (antibiotics, analgesics, anticonvulsants, beta-blockers, cytostatics and X-ray contrast media) which are typically released by hospitals and detected with liquid chromatography coupled tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). While the MBR treatment generally showed only a low degradation capacity for persistent pharmaceuticals, much better degradation was obtained by applying UV irradiation and H₂O₂ as AOP. The “conventional” cost-benefit analysis of the different technology options taking into account both electrical energy consumption and pharmaceutical removal efficiency, revealed clearly better performance of low pressure UV lamps as AOP. However, a holistic comparison between the different scenarios was carried out by evaluating their environmental impacts using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Decisive advantages were highlighted to include this approach in the decision making process.

[en] The goal of the NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS is the measurement of the Branching Ratio of the very rare kaon decay K⁺→π⁺ ν ν-bar with a 10% accuracy by collecting 100 events in two years of data taking. An efficient photon veto system is needed to reject the K⁺→π⁺ π⁰ background and a liquid krypton electromagnetic calorimeter will be used for this purpose in the 1-10 mrad angular region. The L0 trigger system for the calorimeter consists of a peak reconstruction algorithm implemented on FPGA by using a mixed parallel architecture based on soft core Altera NIOS II embedded processors together with custom VHDL modules. This solution allows an efficient and flexible reconstruction of the energy-deposition peak. The system will be totally composed of 36 TEL62 boards, 108 mezzanine cards and 215 high-performance FPGAs. We describe the design, current status and the results of the first performance tests

[en] The branching ratio for the decay K⁺→π⁺νν-bar is sensitive to new physics; the NA62 experiment will measure it to within about 10%. To reject the dominant background from channels with final state photons, the large-angle vetoes (LAVs) must detect particles with better than 1 ns time resolution and 10% energy resolution over a very large energy range. Our custom readout board uses a time-over-threshold discriminator coupled to a TDC as a straightforward solution to satisfy these requirements. A prototype of the readout system was extensively tested together with the ANTI-A2 large angle veto module at CERN in summer 2010.

[en] The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS aims to measure the Branching Ratio of the very rare kaon decay K⁺→π⁺νν-bar collecting O(100) events with a 10% background in two years of data taking. To reject the K⁺→π⁺π⁰ background the NA48 liquid krypton calorimeter will be used in the 1-10 mrad angular region. The status of the Liquid Krypton Electromagnetic Calorimeter Level 0 Trigger is presented.