Annotation:

The goal of the COMET (COherent Muon-to-Electron Transition) experiment at the J-PARC accelerator complex is to search for a neutrinoless conversion of a muon to an electron in the field of the nucleus µ + N(A,Z) → e + N(A,Z), a process in which the lepton flavour number is violated in the charged sector of the Standard Model. Since the probability of a µ-e conversion in the Standard Model is zero, the observation of such an event would indicate the manifestation of effects of the so-called New Physics.

The COMET experiment includes two implementation phases. During Phase-I, a detailed study of background processes will be carried out and the sensitivity to the events of the µ-e conversion of the order of 10¹⁵ will be achieved. In the future, during Phase-II, it is expected to improve the results and reach a value of 10¹⁷, thereby exceeding the sensitivity of the already conducted experiments by 4 orders of magnitude. Prior to Phase-I, it is planned to carry out a set of preliminary preparatory works which were termed as Phase-α.

The seminar will provide a detailed overview of the status of work carried out by the collaboration, the status of implementation of Phase-α and Phase-I. A special attention will be drawn to the description of the results of works performed so far within the JINR project “COMET Experiment”. Apart from these issues, the detailed plans for the further participation of JINR in the experiment during Phase-I will be discussed.

The seminar will be held in connection with the proposal of prolongation of the JINR project “COMET Experiment”.