Rare K-meson decays, standard model, and new physics

A wide program of new investigations into rare kaon decays in experiments a t IHEP, Fermilab, and Brookhaven National Laboratory accelerators is review ed. Experiments aimed at studying low-energy hadronic processes in kaon dec ays, searches for new types of interactions, and investigation of CP-violat ion processes and of extremely rare flavor-changing neutral-current K-->pi nu<(<nu>)over bar> decays are the main components of this program. The rela tion of such processes to the Standard Model and new physics beyond it is d iscussed. (C) 2001 MAIK "Nauka/Interperiodica".