Mu2e: A high-sensitivity search for charged lepton flavor violation at Fermilab

The Mu2e collaboration proposes to search for the coherent, neutrinoless conversion of muons into electrons in the field of a nucleus, μ−N→e−N, with a single-event sensitivity of ∼10−16, an improvement of a factor of 10,000 over existing limits. This lepton flavor-violating reaction probes mass scales unavailable by direct searches at either present or planned high energy colliders. The apparatus is described as well as a scheme by which the experiment can be mounted in the present Fermilab accelerator complex. Prospects for increased sensitivity using the Project X accelerator upgrades that are being proposed by Fermilab are briefly discussed.