OVERVIEW OF KAON DECAY PHYSICS

Abstract

After a brief history of the insights gained from Kaon physics, the potential of Kaon decays for probing lepton number violation is discussed. Present tests of CTP and of Quantum Mechanics in the neutral Kaon sector are then reviewed and the potential of the Frascati $\Phi$ factory for doing incisive tests in this area is emphasized. The rest of this overview focuses on CP violating effects in the Kaon system. Although present observations of CP violation are perfectly consistent with the CKM model, we emphasize the theoretical and experimental difficulties which must be faced to establish this conclusively. In so doing, theoretical predictions and experimental prospects for detecting $\Delta S=1$ CP violation through measurements of $\epsilon^\prime/\epsilon$ and of rare K decays are reviewed. The importance of looking for evidence for non-CKM CP-violating phases, through a search for a non-vanishing transverse muon polarization in $K_{\mu 3}$ decays, is also stressed.