# References

IUHET 384

January 1998

TESTING CPT AND LORENTZ SYMMETRY WITH   
NEUTRAL-KAON OSCILLATIONS   
V. Alan Kostelecký

Physics Department, Indiana University   
Bloomington, IN 47405, U.S.A.   

In this talk, a brief summary is given of the possibility of using neutral-kaon oscillations to bound CPT- and Lorentz-breaking parameters in an extension of the minimal standard model.

The product CPT of charge conjugation C, parity reflection P, and time reversal T is known to be a discrete symmetry in generic local relativistic quantum field theories of point particles in flat spacetime, including the standard model . Many experimental tests of CPT exist . At present, the tightest published constraints on CPT violation come from neutral-kaon interferometry. For instance, the experiment E773 at Fermilab  has published a bound $`r_K|m_Km_{\overline{K}}|/m_K<1.3\times 10^{18}`$ at the 90% confidence level.

The attained precision of these tests and the CPT invariance of the standard model make CPT breaking a candidate signal for new physics, such as string theory . Indeed, a theoretical framework for CPT and Lorentz violation does exist. It is based on the notion that apparent low-energy CPT and Lorentz violation might emerge as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking in an underlying CPT- and Lorentz-invariant theory . The potentially observable effects of CPT and Lorentz breaking would then merely be a consequence of the vacuum structure, which means many attractive properties of typical Lorentz-invariant theories would be preserved.

Effects of this type can be described at the level of the minimal SU(3) $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) standard model by including additional terms that could arise from spontaneous CPT and Lorentz breaking but that preserve gauge invariances and power-counting renormalizability . The existence of this explicit extension of the standard model means that possible experimental signals for apparent CPT and Lorentz breaking can be investigated quantitatively. Limits on the breaking then take the form of bounds on coefficients of the new terms.

Using this approach, various experimental consequences of possible CPT and Lorentz violation have been investigated. The absence to date of observed violation suggests a high degree of suppression for possible effects at our present energies. If the standard model is regarded as an effective theory at the electroweak scale $`m_{\mathrm{ew}}`$ that arises from a fundamental theory at the Planck scale $`m_{\mathrm{Pl}}`$, then the natural suppression factor for CPT and Lorentz violation would be $`rm_{\mathrm{ew}}/m_{\mathrm{Pl}}10^{17}`$. The small size of this factor suggests only a few CPT- and Lorentz-violating effects might be experimentally observable. However, some possible signals do exist. They include, for example, ones in the $`K`$, $`D`$, $`B_d`$, and $`B_s`$ neutral-meson systems , in various QED contexts , and in baryogenesis . This talk focuses on tests with neutral mesons, in particular on the application of strangeness oscillations in the neutral-kaon system as interferometric CPT tests.

Let the symbol $`P`$ denote any of the four neutral mesons $`K`$, $`D`$, $`B_d`$, $`B_s`$. In $`P`$-meson interferometry, a phenomenological description of the time evolution is used to extract constraints on CPT violation. The Schrödinger wave functions of the strong-interaction particle eigenstate $`P^0`$ and its opposite-flavor antiparticle state $`\overline{P^0}`$ are taken to form a two-component object $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$. The time evolution is determined by the equation $`i_t\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Psi }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is an effective hamiltonian. Flavor oscillations between $`P^0`$ and $`\overline{P^0}`$ are governed by the off-diagonal components of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$.

A phenomenological parametrization of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_P`$ permits two possible kinds of (indirect) CP violation. The usual one is T violation with CPT invariance, and the relevant parameter is denoted $`ϵ_P`$. In the kaon system, a nonzero value of $`ϵ_K`$ is observed , and it can be related to CKM matrix elements in the minimal standard model. The other kind of CP violation is CPT violation with T invariance, governed by a complex parameter denoted $`\delta _P`$. In the kaon system, a constraint on $`\delta _K`$ arises from a limit on $`r_K`$, and $`\delta _K`$ can be related to coefficients of the CPT-violating terms in the standard-model extension .

It can be shown that $`\delta _P`$ is sensitive to only one type of term in the standard-model extension . Denoting a quark field by $`q`$, the relevant lagrangian term is $`a_\mu ^q\overline{q}\gamma ^\mu q`$. Here, $`a_\mu ^q`$ is constant in spacetime but depends on the quark flavor $`q`$. No other lagrangian terms in the standard-model extension affect $`\delta _P`$. Moreover, neutral-meson interferometry is the only class of experiments known to be sensitive to the parameters $`a_\mu `$.

Since the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ formalism is based on nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, the parameter $`\delta _P`$ is defined in a frame comoving with the $`P`$ meson. Many experiments involve relativistic mesons, and it can be shown that the presence of CPT and Lorentz breaking implies that $`\delta _P`$ is boost dependent. Denoting the $`P`$-meson four-velocity by $`\beta ^\mu \gamma (1,\stackrel{}{\beta })`$, a general expression for $`\delta _P`$ is 

$$\delta _Pi\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\varphi }\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{\varphi })\gamma (\mathrm{\Delta }a_0\stackrel{}{\beta }\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a})/\mathrm{\Delta }m,$$
(1)   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_\mu a_\mu ^{q_2}a_\mu ^{q_1}`$ with $`q_1`$ and $`q_2`$ denoting the two flavors of valence quark in the $`P`$ meson. In Eq. (1), the mass and decay-rate differences between $`P_L`$ and $`P_S`$ are, respectively, $`\mathrm{\Delta }mm_Lm_S`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma \gamma _S\gamma _L`$, while $`\widehat{\varphi }\mathrm{tan}^1(2\mathrm{\Delta }m/\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )`$. A subscript $`P`$ is understood on all these quantities. Equation (1) holds at leading order in all the Lorentz-breaking parameters in the standard-model extension.

The above analysis has several implications for experiment. The hermiticity of the standard-model extension means that $`a_\mu `$ is real. This implies a proportionality between the real and imaginary parts of $`\delta _P`$, which in principle provides an experimental signal for spontaneous CPT and Lorentz breaking . Also, the flavor dependence of the parameters $`a_\mu ^q`$ means that the magnitudes of $`\delta _P`$ for distinct $`P`$ could differ significantly, so it is potentially important to test CPT symmetry in several neutral-meson systems. Note that any direct CPT violation in $`P`$-meson decay amplitudes would be suppressed by the factor $`r10^{17}`$ and hence would be too small to detect.

A significant feature of Eq. (1) is the appearance of a multiplicative factor of $`\gamma `$. This can enhance the CPT-violating effect for boosted mesons . For example, under certain circumstances the CPT reach of an experiment can be improved by increasing the boost, as well as by increasing the statistics. The momentum dependence also means that published limits on $`\delta _P`$ from different experiments may represent inequivalent CPT sensitivities. Moreover, typical experiments involve a spectrum of neutral-meson momenta. The momentum dependence predicted by Eq. (1) therefore offers in principle a striking signal for CPT and Lorentz breaking.

Equation (1) also describes orientation-dependent effects, in that $`\delta _P`$ depends on the direction of propagation of the $`P`$ meson according to the angle between $`\stackrel{}{\beta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$. This has several implications . For example, since bounds on $`\delta _P`$ are typically extracted from data that are taken over many days, the Earth’s rotation must be taken into account, either by a suitable averaging or by time binning. The type of experiment is also a relevant factor. Consider, for example, experiments with correlated $`P`$-$`\overline{P}`$ pairs generated via quarkonium decays. For a symmetric factory with unboosted quarkonia the momentum distribution is of lesser interest, being essentially a line spectrum, but a $`4\pi `$ coverage would permit detailed studies of the angular dependence. In this case, $`\delta _P`$ and the associated CPT behavior of the two $`P`$ mesons in each correlated pair differ because their velocities are opposite. In contrast, in an asymmetric factory with boosted quarkonia the $`P`$-meson momentum distribution is nontrivial and can combine with the angular dependence to produce an interesting variety of CPT-violating effects.

I thank Orfeu Bertolami, Robert Bluhm, Don Colladay, Rob Potting, Neil Russell, Stuart Samuel, and Rick Van Kooten for collaborations. This work is supported in part by the United States Department of Energy under grant number DE-FG02-91ER40661.