Discovering new physics in rare kaon decays

The decays and mixing of $K$ mesons are remarkably sensitive to the weak interactions of quarks and leptons at high energies. They provide important tests of the standard model at both first and second order in the Fermi constant $G_F$ and offer a window into possible new phenomena at energies as high as 1,000 TeV. These possibilities become even more compelling as the growing capabilities of lattice QCD make high-precision standard model predictions possible. Here we discuss and attempt to forecast some of these capabilities.