# Sensitivity of CPT Tests with Neutral Mesons

## Abstract

The sensitivity of experiments with neutral mesons to possible indirect CPT violation is examined. It is shown that experiments conventionally regarded as equivalent can have CPT reaches differing by orders of magnitude within the framework of a minimal CPT- and Lorentz-violating extension of the standard model.

Neutral-meson interferometry is a powerful tool for investigating the discrete symmetry CPT. This product of charge conjugation C, parity reflection P, and time reversal T is known to be an invariance of local relativistic quantum field theories of point particles in flat spacetime . Among the various tests of CPT , the sharpest published bounds are obtained with the neutral-kaon system. As an example, the CPT figure of merit $`r_K|m_Km_{\overline{K}}|/m_K`$ has recently been constrained to $`r_K<1.3\times 10^{18}`$ at the 90% confidence level by the experiment E773 at Fermilab .

In neutral-meson interferometry, bounds on CPT violation are extracted using a phenomenological description of the meson time evolution. Denote by $`P^0`$ any of the possible neutral mesons $`K^0`$, $`D^0`$, $`B_d^0`$, $`B_s^0`$ produced using the strong interaction, and combine the Schrödinger wave functions of $`P^0`$ and its opposite-flavor antiparticle $`\overline{P^0}`$ into a two-component object $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$. Then, the time evolution of $`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ is governed by a 2$`\times `$2 effective hamiltonian $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ through the equation $`i_t\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Psi }`$. Off-diagonal components of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ drive flavor oscillations between $`P^0`$ and $`\overline{P^0}`$.

Two possible kinds of CP violation can be studied within this formalism. The one usually considered involves T violation with CPT invariance and is controlled by a parameter $`ϵ_P`$. In the kaon system, for example, a nonzero value of $`ϵ_K`$ is well established . The other involves CPT violation with T invariance. It is controlled by a complex parameter $`\delta _P\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Lambda }/\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Lambda }(\mathrm{\Lambda }_{11}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{22})/2`$ is half the diagonal-element difference in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\lambda `$ is the eigenvalue difference. In the kaon system, a bound on $`r_K`$ constrains $`\delta _K`$.

The parameter $`\delta _P`$ can be bounded experimentally whether or not a nonzero value has any theoretical basis. However, a framework for CPT violation based on conventional quantum field theory does exist. The idea is that apparent low-energy CPT and Lorentz breaking might arise spontaneously within a more fundamental theory that is otherwise CPT and Lorentz invariant . Any apparent breaking at the level of the standard model would then merely reflect a feature of the vacuum rather than a fundamental property of the theory . Potentially observable effects within this general framework have been studied in neutral-meson systems , in QED , and in baryogenesis .

Apparent Lorentz and CPT violation of this type can be incorporated in a general extension of the minimal SU(3) $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) standard model that preserves gauge invariance and renormalizability . In the underlying theory, the spontaneous breaking generates constant background expectation values as usual, but the fields involved are Lorentz tensors instead of Higgs scalars. In the standard-model extension, nonzero expectation values appear as coupling constants with Lorentz indices. For example, an expectation value $`a_\mu `$ would allow a CPT- and Lorentz-violating term $`a_\mu \overline{\psi }\gamma ^\mu \psi `$ for a fermion $`\psi `$.

The present work investigates the sensitivity of neutral-meson experiments to indirect CPT-violating effects produced in the standard-model extension . Most of the theoretical considerations apply to any of the four neutral-meson systems. For definiteness, in the discussion of CPT tests some emphasis is placed on the E773 experiment mentioned above. The results are of immediate interest for CPT tests because at present the framework of the standard-model extension seems to be the only available consistent theoretical basis for a nonzero $`\delta _P`$ within conventional quantum field theory .

The first step is to obtain an explicit expression for $`\delta _P`$ within the standard-model extension. A key point is that the parameter $`\delta _P`$ must be C violating but P and T preserving. This is because the strong-interaction states $`P^0`$, $`\overline{P^0}`$ are eigenvectors of parity with the same eigenvalue, so the linear combinations forming the physical eigenstates $`P_S`$, $`P_L`$ of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ are parity eigenstates too. Parity is therefore preserved during the time evolution of a neutral-meson state, so any CP violation appearing in $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is really C violation with P invariance.

In the lagrangian $``$ for the standard-model extension, the parameters controlling the Lorentz and CPT violation are assumed suppressed by the (small) dimensionless ratio of the relevant light energy scale to the Planck scale . Thus, only contributions linear in these parameters could produce observable CPT violation in experiments with neutral mesons. Also, since $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ is flavor-diagonal, any term in $``$ with both CPT breaking and flavor changing would affect $`\delta _P`$ at most as the square of a small parameter and hence can be disregarded.

Remarkably, an inspection shows that only one type of term in the standard-model extension is flavor diagonal while violating C but preserving P and T. For each quark field $`q`$ it has the form $`a_0^q\overline{q}\gamma ^0q`$, where $`a_0^q`$ is the zeroth component of a background expectation value $`a_\mu ^q`$ that varies with the flavor $`q`$ (cf. the usual Yukawa couplings). Thus, at first order in perturbation theory the diagonal elements of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ depend only on $`a_0^q`$.

This result is of particular interest both because no other CPT- and Lorentz-violating expectation values appear and because to date no other experiments sensitive to $`a_\mu ^q`$ have been identified. Note that higher-order corrections from conventional interactions do not change the result. Pure strong or electromagnetic corrections preserve C, P, T and therefore at most can modify the magnitude of the contributions proportional to $`a_0^q`$. Any weak-interaction corrections violating C and P while preserving net flavor would be suppressed by several orders of magnitude. Also, possible CPT violation in the gauge sector is expected to be small  and in any case must appear as a higher-order correction here.

As a result of CPT violation, the parameter $`a_0^{q_1}`$ for the valence quark $`q_1`$ in the $`P^0`$ meson contributes with opposite sign to $`a_0^{q_2}`$ for the antiquark $`\overline{q_2}`$. This means that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{\Delta }a_0(a_0^{q_2}a_0^{q_1})`$ at leading order . The proportionality constant can be found in perturbation theory and is approximately one , so from the definition of $`\delta _P`$ one finds

$$\delta _Pi\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\varphi }\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{\varphi })\mathrm{\Delta }a_0/\mathrm{\Delta }m,$$
(1)   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }mm_Lm_S`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma \gamma _S\gamma _L`$ are the mass and decay-rate differences, respectively, between $`P_L`$ and $`P_S`$, and where $`\widehat{\varphi }\mathrm{tan}^1(2\mathrm{\Delta }m/\mathrm{\Delta }\gamma )`$. A subscript $`P`$ is understood on all these quantities.

The result (1), valid at leading order in all Lorentz-violating parameters in the standard-model extension, holds for $`P^0`$ mesons at rest in the (oriented) inertial frame in which $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$ is specified. In considering the effects of rotations and boosts on this result, one must keep distinct transformations of the observer (laboratory) frame from changes of the momentum or orientation of a particle within a given observer frame. The former are conventional Lorentz transformations, and full covariance is maintained because the background fields are perceived as changed when the observer frame changes. In contrast, changes of the particle momentum or orientation leave unaffected the background values, producing (small) apparent changes in the intrinsic properties of the particle.

Equation (1) shows that the result of a CPT test with mesons at rest in the laboratory is explicitly rotationally invariant. However, no experiments with mesons at rest have been performed. An approximation is provided by the Cornell CLEO experiment, which involves (correlated) $`B`$ mesons traveling at only about 6% of lightspeed. A measurement of $`\delta _B`$ in this experiment might therefore approximately bound $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$ via Eq. (1).

Most experiments involve relativistic mesons. This has implications for the CPT reach because the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ formalism is obtained from nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, and so for a boosted meson $`\delta _P`$ is defined in the comoving frame. To obtain the analogue of Eq. (1) valid for relativistic mesons, one can take advantage of the covariance of the standard-model extension under observer boosts. Suppose a particle at rest in the laboratory frame is described by a lagrangian including the term $`a_\mu ^q\overline{q}\gamma ^\mu q`$, as before. Then, another particle with momentum related to the first by an inverse boost $`(L^1)_\nu ^\mu `$ is described in the same frame by $`a_\mu ^q(L^1)_\nu ^\mu \overline{q}\gamma ^\nu q`$, since the background value $`a_\mu ^q`$ is fixed. The lagrangian describing this boosted particle in a comoving observer frame is obtained by performing an observer boost with $`L_\nu ^\mu `$, under which both the background values and the fields transform. The result is a term $`a_\mu ^q\overline{q}\gamma ^\mu q`$, where $`a^{q\mu }=L_\nu ^\mu a^{q\nu }`$. Thus, in the comoving frame in which the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ formalism is valid and $`\delta _P`$ is defined, the CPT-violating physics is controlled by $`a_0^q`$ instead of $`a_0^q`$. For a 4-velocity $`\beta ^\mu \gamma (1,\stackrel{}{\beta })`$, one has $`a_0^q=\beta ^\mu a_\mu ^q`$ and hence 

$$\delta _Pi\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\varphi }\mathrm{exp}(i\widehat{\varphi })\gamma (\mathrm{\Delta }a_0\stackrel{}{\beta }\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a})/\mathrm{\Delta }m,$$
(2)   
where $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}\stackrel{}{a}^{q_2}\stackrel{}{a}^{q_1}`$.

Since the expressions for $`\delta _P`$ in Eqs. (1) and (2) have the same phase, the real and imaginary parts of $`\delta _P`$ are scaled in the same way when a meson is boosted in the laboratory. However, Eq. (2) shows that there is an overall multiplicative factor of $`\gamma `$ acting to enhance the CPT-violating effect. Moreover, the observed CPT violation for relativistic mesons depends not only on $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$ but also on the angle $`\alpha `$ between $`\stackrel{}{\beta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ and on the magnitudes $`\beta `$ of $`\stackrel{}{\beta }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }a`$ of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$. Since $`|\beta \mathrm{cos}\alpha |<1`$, the factor involving $`\mathrm{\Delta }a`$ is always suppressed relative to $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$, although the combination $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0\stackrel{}{\beta }\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ may be larger or smaller than $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$. Note that if spontaneous Lorentz breaking generates only 0-component expectation values as seen in the laboratory frame, then $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}=0`$ for a meson at rest and so the value of $`\delta _P`$ is enhanced exactly by a factor $`\gamma `$ for a boosted meson. If instead no pure 0-component expectation values are generated, then $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0=0`$ for a meson at rest, $`\delta _P`$ depends on $`\gamma \beta \mathrm{\Delta }a\mathrm{cos}\alpha `$, and a meson boost is necessary to observe any effect. Finally, if $`\mathrm{\Delta }a>\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$, then there is a hyperbola in $`\beta `$-$`\mathrm{cos}\alpha `$ space along which CPT violation is exactly cancelled and near which significant suppression could reduce the CPT reach of certain experiments.

In an ideal case, increasing the statistics by a factor $`N`$ would improve the CPT reach by a factor $`\sqrt{N}`$. However, the variation of $`\delta _P`$ with $`\gamma `$ provides an alternative possibility. Suppose for simplicity that data at fixed $`\alpha `$ are obtained from an experiment in a regime where $`\delta _P\gamma `$ holds to a good approximation. Then, the CPT reach of the experiment can be doubled either by quadrupling the statistics or by doubling the boost.

One implication is that the bounds on $`\delta _P`$ reported from different experiments may be inequivalent. Experiments with comparable statistical precision can involve mesons with very different boosts and hence may have very different CPT sensitivity. In some experiments, the boost factor is large. For example, the $`B`$ mesons in the proposed LHC-B experiment at CERN are expected to have $`\overline{\gamma }15`$. Similarly, the E773 experiment at Fermilab involves kaons with mean value $`\overline{\gamma }10^2`$. The figure of merit $`r_K`$ bounded in this experiment is proportional to $`\delta _K`$, so in the above scenario the attainable sensitivity to CPT violation is about two orders of magnitude better than the limit on $`r_K`$ would naively suggest.

Many experiments with neutral mesons involve a distribution of momenta. If CPT violation were indeed detectable in such cases, then the predicted momentum dependence of $`\delta _P`$ would provide a striking signal. The presence of a momentum spectrum also has implications for the extraction of a CPT bound. Consider first an experimental asymmetry $`A`$ that is directly sensitive to a linear combination of the real and imaginary parts of $`\delta _P`$. An example is the fully integrated asymmetry $`A_f`$ for uncorrelated neutral-$`B`$ mesons described in Ref. . In a regime where $`\delta _P\gamma `$ holds and $`\alpha `$ is constant, $`\delta _P`$ and hence $`A`$ both scale linearly with $`\gamma `$. The mean value $`\overline{A}`$ of the asymmetry is then proportional to $`\overline{\gamma }`$, determined by the form of the normalized meson-momentum spectrum. For example, $`\gamma p`$ approximately for large momentum magnitudes $`p`$, so in this case the effective meson momentum determining the CPT reach is just the mean momentum $`\overline{p}`$ of the distribution .

Most experiments constrain $`\delta _P`$ either through fits to time-dependent asymmetries or from the measurement of other quantities. For example, the E773 experiment measures $`\mathrm{\Delta }m`$, the $`K_S`$ lifetime $`\tau _S`$, and the usual two phases $`\varphi _+`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi \varphi _{00}\varphi _+`$ related to ratios of amplitudes for $`2\pi `$ decays: $`A(K_L\pi ^+\pi ^{})/A(K_S\pi ^+\pi ^{})|\eta _+|\mathrm{exp}(i\varphi _+)`$, and similarly for $`2\pi ^0`$ decays. Defining $`\chi \varphi _+\widehat{\varphi }+\mathrm{\Delta }\varphi /3`$, a bound on $`|\delta _K||\eta _+||\chi |`$ can be extracted using the established value  of $`|\eta _+|`$, along with a bound on $`r_K2\mathrm{\Delta }m|\delta _K|/m_K\mathrm{sin}\widehat{\varphi }`$. It can be shown that for small CPT violation a scaling of $`\delta _K`$ by $`\gamma _2/\gamma _1`$ occurring when the meson boost is changed from $`\gamma _1`$ to $`\gamma _2`$ would arise largely from a corresponding additive change to $`\varphi _+`$ by an amount $`[(\gamma _2/\gamma _1)1]|\chi |`$, while the other measured quantities remain essentially unchanged. In this case, CPT violation would manifest itself as a momentum dependence in the observed value of $`\varphi _+`$ .

Since precision constraints on $`\delta _P`$ require high statistics, experiments are performed over many days. For example, the E773 data were collected over several months . Effects of the Earth’s motion on the meson velocities and orientations must therefore be considered.

The parameter $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_\mu `$ is constant in any special-relativistic inertial frame. In a frame in the solar neighborhood, the velocity of a laboratory on the Earth’s surface is nonrelativistic, so any associated effects can be neglected. However, the rotation of the Earth about its axis introduces a time variation in the apparent orientation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ in an Earth-based laboratory . If in an experiment the data are taken with time stamps, then it is possible in principle to search directly for such variations. The appropriate expression for $`\delta _P`$ is Eq. (2) with an apparent time dependence for the component of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ lying in the Earth’s equatorial plane.

Useful bounds can also be obtained without time binning. If, for example, the data are taken with a fixed orientation of $`\stackrel{}{\beta }`$ in the laboratory frame and are uniformly distributed in time over a rotation period, then the only net surviving CPT-violating effect arises from the component of $`\stackrel{}{\beta }\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis. As an example of this geometrical effect, if the plane of the experiment is tangent to the Earth at latitude $`\psi `$ and $`\chi `$ is the angle made by $`\stackrel{}{\beta }`$ relative to the rotational north pole in this plane, then $`\delta _P\gamma (\mathrm{\Delta }a_0\beta \mathrm{cos}\psi \mathrm{cos}\chi \mathrm{\Delta }a_{})`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_{}`$ is the component of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ parallel to the Earth’s rotational axis. If by mischance $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ is orthogonal to the Earth’s rotational axis, any experiments performed over many rotation periods are sensitive only to $`\delta _P\gamma \mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$. The latter also holds for any $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ if the mesons are boosted solely east-west.

For the E773 experiment, $`\beta \mathrm{cos}\psi \mathrm{cos}\chi 0.6`$. An estimate of the attainable CPT bound on the quantities $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_\mu `$ is then $`|\mathrm{\Delta }a_00.6\mathrm{\Delta }a_{}|m_Kr_K/2\gamma \text{ }<10^{20}m_K`$. The scale of this bound is comparable to the ratio of the kaon mass to the Planck mass. Note that time binning could also be used to investigate the possibility of time variations, as suggested above. In any case, an improved bound may be feasible in the near future using data from the KTeV experiment at Fermilab or the NA48 experiment at CERN.

The E773 experiment involves collimated beams of uncorrelated boosted mesons, but other types of experiment also exist. Boosted mesons traveling in different directions can be produced in a collider. For example, uncorrelated $`B`$ mesons with velocity orientation throughout most of the $`4\pi `$ range are accessible to LEP detectors at CERN. In experiments of this type, CPT studies allowing for angular dependence of $`\delta _P`$ by binning the data in angle slices could in principle allow separate extraction of bounds on $`\mathrm{\Delta }a_0`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$. The effects may be partially reduced by averaging due to the Earth’s rotation. For example, for the special case of an integrated uniform meson distribution transverse to the beam, the angular dependence of the CPT violation is reduced by the time-averaged cosine of the angle between $`\mathrm{\Delta }\stackrel{}{a}`$ and the beam. This effect could be avoided by time binning.

Another class of experiments involves correlated $`P_S`$-$`P_L`$ pairs from quarkonium decays. The unboosted case (symmetric factory) produces primarily a line spectrum in the momentum, so although a (small) $`\gamma `$ scale factor may appear there is essentially no momentum dependence. However, the $`4\pi `$ coverage provides potential sensitivity to possible angular dependence. Note that the values of $`\delta _P`$ for the two mesons in each correlated pair are typically different because they travel in opposite directions. Also, the effect of the Earth’s rotation must again be allowed for in the analysis. In contrast, the boosted case (asymmetric factory) produces a meson-momentum spectrum, so a combination of momentum and angular dependence can govern the CPT-violating effects.

This paper has considered the boost and orientation dependences appearing in the CPT-violating parameter $`\delta _P`$ within the context of the Lorentz-violating standard-model extension. A related analysis for the usual CP-violating parameter $`ϵ_P`$ shows that it too could acquire contributions from Lorentz-violating terms in the standard-model extension that involve C and T violation but preserve P (and CPT). However, the effect would require second-order flavor-changing contributions, and hence it is expected to be suppressed relative to the contributions to $`\delta _P`$ discussed above. Moreover, unlike the case of $`\delta _P`$, conventional contributions to $`ϵ_P`$ from low-energy physics can arise, so any Planck-scale effect may be masked. It therefore appears unlikely that observable boost or orientation dependence for $`ϵ_P`$ would arise in the context of the present framework .

This work is supported in part by the Department of Energy under grant number DE-FG02-91ER40661.