Precision tests of CPT symmetry and quantum mechanics in the neutral kaon system

Testing CPT Symmetry with Neutral K Mesons: A Review

The neutral kaon system is a very peculiar system that offers unique possibilities to perform precise tests of the CPT symmetry. The entanglement of neutral kaon pairs that are produced at a ϕ-factory opens up new ways and scenarios in order to test this fundamental discrete symmetry. In this paper, the results of the most recent and significant CPT tests are reviewed. Experiments have set stringent limits on the CPT-violating parameters of different phenomenological models, some of them associated to possible decoherence mechanisms or Lorentz symmetry violation which might be justified in a quantum gravity framework. The present results show no violation of CPT symmetry, while their accuracy in some cases reaches the interesting level at which–in the most optimistic scenarios–quantum gravity effects might show up.

Decoherence and discrete symmetries in deformed relativistic kinematics

Models of deformed Poincaré symmetries based on group valued momenta have long been studied as effective modifications of relativistic kinematics possibly capturing quantum gravity effects. In this contribution we show how they naturally lead to a generalized quantum time evolution of the type proposed to model fundamental decoherence for quantum systems in the presence of an evaporating black hole. The same structures which determine such generalized evolution also lead to a modification of the action of discrete symmetries and of the CPT operator. These features can in principle be used to put phenomenological constraints on models of deformed relativistic symmetries using precision measurements of neutral kaons.

The signal of ill-defined CPT weakening entanglement in the B d system

In the presence of quantum-gravity fluctuations (space-time foam), the CPT operator may be ill-defined. Its perturbative treatment leads to a modification of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation of the neutral meson system by adding an entanglement-weakening term of the wrong exchange symmetry, the ω -effect. In the current paper we identify how to probe the complex ω in the entangled B d -system using the flavour (f)-CP(g) eigenstate decay channels: the connection between the intensities for the two time-ordered decays (f, g) and (g, f) is lost. Appropriate observables are constructed allowing independent experimental determinations of Re( ω ) and Im( ω ), disentangled from CPT violation in the evolution Hamiltonian Re( θ ) and Im( θ ). 2 σ tensions for both Re( θ ) and Im( ω ) are shown to be uncorrelated.

Quantum-Spacetime Phenomenology

I review the current status of phenomenological programs inspired by quantum-spacetime research. I stress in particular the significance of results establishing that certain data analyses provide sensitivity to effects introduced genuinely at the Planck scale. My main focus is on phenomenological programs that affect the directions taken by studies of quantum-spacetime theories.

Novel type of CPT violation for correlated Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen states of neutral mesons

We discuss modifications to the concept of an "antiparticle," induced by a breakdown of the CPT symmetry at a fundamental level, realized within an extended class of quantum gravity models. The resulting loss of particle-antiparticle identity in the neutral-meson system induces a breaking of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlation imposed by Bose statistics. This is parametrized by a complex parameter associated with the contamination by the "wrong symmetry" state. The physical consequences are studied, and novel observables of CPT violation in phi factories are proposed.

CPT-Odd resonances in neutrino oscillations

We consider the consequences for future neutrino factory experiments of small CPT-odd interactions in neutrino oscillations. The nu(&mgr;)-->nu(&mgr;) and nu;(&mgr;)-->nu;(&mgr;) survival probabilities at a baseline L = 732 km can test for CPT-odd contributions at orders of magnitude better sensitivity than present neutrino sector limits. Interference between the CPT-violating interaction and CPT-even mass terms in the Lagrangian can lead to a resonant enhancement of the oscillation amplitude. For oscillations in matter, a simultaneous enhancement of both neutrino and antineutrino oscillation amplitudes is possible.

Probing possible decoherence effects in atmospheric neutrino oscillations

It is shown that the results of the Super-Kamiokande atmospheric neutrino experiment, interpreted in terms of nu(mu)<-->nu(tau) flavor transitions, can probe possible decoherence effects induced by new physics (e.g., by quantum gravity) with high sensitivity, supplementing current laboratory tests based on kaon oscillations and on neutron interferometry. By varying the (unknown) energy dependence of such effects, one can either obtain strong limits on their amplitude or use them to find an unconventional solution to the atmospheric nu anomaly based solely on decoherence.