skip to main content


This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2024

Title: Opportunistic CP violation
A bstract In the electroweak sector of the Standard Model, CP violation arises through a very particular interplay between the three quark generations, as described by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mechanism and the single Jarlskog invariant J 4 . Once generalized to the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), this peculiar pattern gets modified by higher-dimensional operators, whose associated Wilson coefficients are usually split into CP-even and odd parts. However, CP violation at dimension four, i.e., at the lowest order in the EFT expansion, blurs this distinction: any Wilson coefficient can interfere with J 4 and mediate CP violation. In this paper, we study such interferences at first order in the SMEFT expansion, 𝒪(1 / Λ 2 ), and we capture their associated parameter space via a set of 1551 linear CP-odd flavor invariants. This construction describes both new, genuinely CP-violating quantities as well as the interference between J 4 and CP-conserving ones. We call this latter possibility opportunistic CP violation . Relying on an appropriate extension of the matrix rank to Taylor expansions, which we dub Taylor rank , we define a procedure to organize the invariants in terms of their magnitude, so as to retain only the relevant ones at a given precision. We explore how this characterization changes when different assumptions are made on the flavor structure of the SMEFT coefficients. Interestingly, some of the CP-odd invariants turn out to be less suppressed than J 4 , even when they capture opportunistic CPV, demonstrating that CP-violation in the SM, at dimension 4, is accidentally small.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2210498
NSF-PAR ID:
10437887
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of High Energy Physics
Volume:
2023
Issue:
6
ISSN:
1029-8479
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. A bstract We calculate pp → ℓ + ν, ℓ − $$ \overline{\nu} $$ ν ¯ to $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1 / Λ 4 ) within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) framework. In particular, we calculate the four-fermion contribution from dimension six and eight operators, which dominates at large center of mass energy. We explore the relative size of the $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1 / Λ 4 ) and $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1 / Λ 2 ) results for various kinematic regimes and assumptions about the Wilson coefficients. Results for Drell-Yan production pp → ℓ + ℓ − at $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1 / Λ 4 ) are also provided. Additionally, we develop the form for four fermion contact term contributions to pp → ℓ + ν, ℓ − $$ \overline{\nu} $$ ν ¯ , pp → ℓ + ℓ − of arbitrary mass dimension. This allows us to estimate the effects from even higher dimensional (dimension > 8) terms in the SMEFT framework. 
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    A bstract We present a comprehensive analysis of the potential sensitivity of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV) in the channel ep → τX , within the model-independent framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We compute the relevant cross sections to leading order in QCD and electroweak corrections and perform simulations of signal and SM background events in various τ decay channels, suggesting simple cuts to enhance the associated estimated efficiencies. To assess the discovery potential of the EIC in τ - e transitions, we study the sensitivity of other probes of this physics across a broad range of energy scales, from pp → eτX at the Large Hadron Collider to decays of B mesons and τ leptons, such as τ → eγ , τ → eℓ + ℓ − , and crucially the hadronic modes τ → eY with Y ∈ π, K, ππ, Kπ, …. We find that electroweak dipole and four-fermion semi-leptonic operators involving light quarks are already strongly constrained by τ decays, while operators involving the c and b quarks present more promising discovery potential for the EIC. An analysis of three models of leptoquarks confirms the expectations based on the SMEFT results. We also identify future directions needed to maximize the reach of the EIC in CLFV searches: these include an optimization of the τ tagger in hadronic channels, an exploration of background suppression through tagging b and c jets in the final state, and a global fit by turning on all SMEFT couplings, which will likely reveal new discovery windows for the EIC. 
    more » « less
  3. null (Ed.)
    A bstract The Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) theoretical framework is increasingly used to interpret particle physics measurements and constrain physics beyond the Standard Model. We investigate the truncation of the effective-operator expansion using the geometric formulation of the SMEFT, which allows exact solutions, up to mass-dimension eight. Using this construction, we compare the exact solution to the expansion at $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O ( v 2 / Λ 2 ), partial $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O ( v 4 / Λ 4 ) using a subset of terms with dimension-6 operators, and full $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O ( v 4 / Λ 4 ), where v is the vacuum expectation value and Λ is the scale of new physics. This comparison is performed for general values of the coefficients, and for the specific model of a heavy U(1) gauge field kinetically mixed with the Standard Model. We additionally determine the input-parameter scheme dependence at all orders in v/ Λ, and show that this dependence increases at higher orders in v/ Λ. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    A bstract In this paper, we explore the impact of extra radiation on predictions of $$ pp\to \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X},\mathrm{X}=\mathrm{h}/{\mathrm{W}}^{\pm }/\mathrm{Z} $$ pp → t t ¯ X , X = h / W ± / Z processes within the dimension-6 SMEFT framework. While full next-to-leading order calculations are of course preferred, they are not always practical, and so it is useful to be able to capture the impacts of extra radiation using leading-order matrix elements matched to the parton shower and merged. While a matched/merged leading-order calculation for $$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X} $$ t t ¯ X is not expected to reproduce the next-to-leading order inclusive cross section precisely, we show that it does capture the relative impact of the EFT effects by considering the ratio of matched SMEFT inclusive cross sections to Standard Model values, $$ {\sigma}_{\mathrm{SM}\mathrm{EFT}}\left(\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X}+\mathrm{j}\right)/{\sigma}_{\mathrm{SM}}\left(\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X}+\mathrm{j}\right)\equiv \mu $$ σ SMEFT t t ¯ X + j / σ SM t t ¯ X + j ≡ μ . Furthermore, we compare leading order calculations with and without extra radiation and find several cases, such as the effect of the operator $$ \left({\varphi}^{\dagger }i{\overleftrightarrow{D}}_{\mu}\varphi \right)\left(\overline{t}{\gamma}^{\mu }t\right) $$ φ † i D ↔ μ φ t ¯ γ μ t on $$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{h} $$ t t ¯ h and $$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{W} $$ t t ¯ W , for which the relative cross section prediction increases by more than 10% — significantly larger than the uncertainty derived by varying the input scales in the calculation, including the additional scales required for matching and merging. Being leading order at heart, matching and merging can be applied to all operators and processes relevant to $$ pp\to \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X},\mathrm{X}=\mathrm{h}/{\mathrm{W}}^{\pm }/\mathrm{Z}+\mathrm{jet} $$ pp → t t ¯ X , X = h / W ± / Z + jet , is computationally fast and not susceptible to negative weights. Therefore, it is a useful approach in $$ \mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{X} $$ t t ¯ X + jet studies where complete next-to-leading order results are currently unavailable or unwieldy. 
    more » « less
  5. A bstract We introduce a systematic method to classify the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) operators based on their CP properties with the Hilbert series techniques. Our method makes it possible to enumerate operators violating CP symmetry in a few seconds. We present the complete classification of dimension eight operators under CP transformation, and the number of CP-odd or CP-violating operators are listed up to dimension 14. We also provide a companion code in Form that allows anybody to reproduce our results. 
    more » « less