This experiment attempts to measure the Michel parameter Rho in normal muon decay Mu to e nu_{e} nu_{mu} with a precision of 0.001. The Standard Model with pure V-A interaction gives 0.75 for this parameter. The world average value is 0.7518 +/- 0.0026. A deviation of the value of Rho from 0.75 will indicate new physics. The experiment, RHO, was carried out at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, USA, in 1993. The existing experimental set-up that was built for the MEGA experiment was used for the RHO measurement. The experiment was a collaboration of about 50 physicists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Stanford University, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Virginia Tech, Texas A University, Indiana University, Valparaiso University, University of Houston, University of Chicago and University of Virginia. The result of the experiment is in agreement with Standard Model. The precision of this measurement was dominated by systematic uncertainties due to the fact that the positron spectrometer used in the measurement was designed for another experiment. Thus, the data analysis here focused mainly on the determination of systematic errors. / Ph. D.

Muon decay is a unique process involving only the four leptons of the first two generations. This makes it an ideal framework to study the weak interaction. The momentum-angle spectrum of the decay positron can be studied using a general 4-fermion interaction model. Only four parameters are needed in this model to entirely describe the spectrum. The measurement of these four muon decay parameters, rho, eta, delta and Pmu xi, provide a direct test of the Standard Model and its extensions. This thesis presents the final results from the blind analysis of the decay parameter delta using the TWIST (TRIUMF Weak Interaction Symmetry Test) spectrometer. The new precision on the parameter delta is a factor of 11.5 better than the last experimental result prior to TWIST achieving the goal of the TWIST collaboration of an order of magnitude improvement. The challenging parameter eta is also measured from the momentum-angle spectrum for the first time since 1969 with a precision improved by a factor of 7.4. The results are included in a global analysis to obtain stringent limits on some of the coupling constants of the 4-fermion interaction. The result of the measurement of delta are used to evaluate the possibility for a non-local tensor interaction.

The Daya Bay experiment is designed to precisely measure short-baseline disappearance of reactor antineutrinos from reactor cores at the Daya Bay nuclear power plant complex in the Guangdong Province of China. It pre- sented the most precise measurements of oscillation parameters sin2 2θ13 = 0.084 ± 0.005 and |∆m2 ee| = (2.42 ± 0.11) × 10−3 eV2 . Background to the antineutrino signals is mainly created by cosmic muons and is effectively suppressed by use of water Cherenkov and RPC muon detectors. This thesis describe testing of RPC detectors prior to their installation at the experi- mental site. Part of the cosmic muons stop in the experiment's antineutrino detectors, and they decay or are captured by 12 C producing 12 B. Isotope 12 B contribute to accidental background. Rates of muon decays in the detectors are estimated in the thesis. The experiment can register electron antineutri- nos from supernova with expected signals around 20 MeV. Energy scale of the detectors at 53 MeV is determined.

The study of the muon decay process μ+ → e+νeν ̄μ is a powerful constraint on the behaviour of the weak interaction, without contamination of the other, stronger, fundamental interactions. The spectrum measured from the momentum and angles of the decay positrons is parametrized using a set of four decay parameters. The purpose of the TWIST experiment is to measure these decay parameters to an unprecedented precision; an order of magnitude improvement in the uncertainties over measurements completed before the TWIST experiment. Measurements of the muon decay parameters constrain the values of a series of 19 weak coupling constants. In the standard model, V-A weak interaction, 18 of these constants are 0, while the remaining constant describes interactions between left handed particles, gV_LL= 1.The decay parameter ρ quantifies the behaviour of the spectrum with respect to momentum. According to the standard model the value of this parameter is 3/4. TWIST measured a value of ρ = 0.74991±0.00009(stat)±0.00028(sys). The measurement is limited by its systematic uncertainty, so a large focus of the experiment was on the determination and control of these uncertainties. The systematic uncertainties are derived from uncertainties in the detector construction and uncertainties in the biases generated by differences between the data and a matching Monte Carlo. Muon decay also limits the possibility of family symmetry breaking interactions. TWIST can be used to search for the possibility of muons decaying into a positron and a single unidentified neutral particle μ+ → e+X0 that does not otherwise interact with normal matter. The large momentum and angle acceptance of the TWIST spectrometer allows for searches of two body decays for masses of the X0 boson mX0 ∈ [0,80] MeV/c, with a variety of behaviours with respect to the angle of the positron track. Upper limits on massive and mass-less X0 decays are set with a 90% confidence level separately at parts per million for massive decays and parts in 10000 for mass-less decays.

<p>The ability of the Mu2e experiment to probe, or discover BSM physics in direct CLFV μ+ and π+ decay modes is estimated.</p>