The experimentally measured rates of the semileptonic decays K -> pi l nu and D -> K(pi) l nu can be combined with lattice calculations of the associated form factors to precisely extract the CKM matrix elements |V_{ us}| and |V_{ cs(d)}|. We report on the status of form factor calculations with Fermilab charm quarks and staggered light quarks on the 2+1 flavor asqtad staggered MILC ensembles. Analysis of data for the D -> pi l nu form factor provides a nontrivial test of our methods via comparison with CLEO data. We discuss the use of HISQ valence quarks to calculate the K -> pi l nu form factor f_+^{ K pi}(0) and describe tests of our method.

Categories: hep-lat hep-ex hep-ph

Semileptonic decays of K and D mesons in 2+1 flavor QCD