A Review of Rare Pion and Muon Decays

After a decade of no measurements of pion and muon rare decays, PIBETA, a new experimental program is producing its first results. We report on a new experimental study of the pion beta decay, Pi(+) -> Pi(0) e(+) Nu, the Pi(e2 gamma) radiative decay, Pi(+) -> e(+) Nu Gamma, and muon radiative decay, Mu -> e Nu Gamma. The new results represent four- to six-fold improvements in precision over the previous measurements. Excellent agreement with Standard Model predictions is observed in all channels except for one kinematic region of the Pi(e2 gamma) radiative decay involving energetic photons and lower-energy positrons.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, invited talk presented at MESON 2004, 8th Int'l. Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Krakow, Poland 4-8 June 200

Precise Measurement of the Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ nu Branching Ratio

Using a large acceptance calorimeter and a stopped pion beam we have made a precise measurement of the rare Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ Nu,(pi_beta) decay branching ratio. We have evaluated the branching ratio by normalizing the number of observed pi_beta decays to the number of observed Pi+ -> e+ Nu, (pi_{e2}) decays. We find the value of Gamma(Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ Nu)/Gamma(total) = [1.036 +/- 0.004(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) +/- 0.003(pi_{e2})] x 10^{-8}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third is the pi_{e2} branching ratio uncertainty. Our result agrees well with the Standard Model prediction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, revtex4; changed content; updated analysi