The beam and detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN

NA62 is a fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS dedicated to measurements of rare kaon decays. Such measurements, like the branching fraction of the $K^{+} \rightarrow \pi^{+} \nu \bar\nu$ decay, have the potential to bring significant insights into new physics processes when comparison is made with precise theoretical predictions. For this purpose, innovative techniques have been developed, in particular, in the domain of low-mass tracking devices. Detector construction spanned several years from 2009 to 2014. The collaboration started detector commissioning in 2014 and will collect data until the end of 2018. The beam line and detector components are described together with their early …