Measurement of the branching fraction for the decay K-S -> pi mu nu with the KLOE detector

Based on a sample of 300 million K-S mesons produced in phi -> KLKS decays recorded by the KLOE experiment at the DA Phi NE e(+)e(-) collider we have measured the branching fraction for the decay K-S -> pi mu nu. The K-S mesons are identified by the interaction of K-L mesons in the detector. The K-S -> pi mu nu decays are selected by a boosted decision tree built with kinematic variables and by a time-of-flight measurement. Signal efficiencies are evaluated with data control samples of K-L -> pi mu nu decays. A fit to the reconstructed muon mass distribution finds 7223 +/- 180 signal events. Normalising to the K-S -> pi(+)pi(-) decay events the result for the branching fraction is B(K-S -> pi mu nu) = (4.56 +/- 0.11(stat) +/- 0.17(syst)) x 10(-4). It is the first measurement of this decay mode and the result allows an independent determination of vertical bar V-us vertical bar and a test of the lepton-flavour universality. (c) 2020 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).