English

Spontaneous CP Breaking in a QCD-like Theory

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2024-12-17 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We examine the phase structure of a QCD-like theory at θˉ=π\bar\theta =\pi obtained from supersymmetric SU(N)SU(N) QCD perturbed by a small amount of supersymmetry breaking via anomaly mediation (AMSB QCD). The spectrum of this theory matches that of QCD at the massless level, though the superpartners are not decoupled. In this theory it is possible to nail down the phase structure at θˉ=π\bar\theta=\pi as a function of the quark masses and the number of flavors FF. For one flavor we find that there is a critical quark mass, below which CP is unbroken, while above the critical mass CP is spontaneously broken. At the critical mass there is a second-order phase transition along with a massless η\eta'. We are able to analytically solve for the minima and the critical mass for N=2,3N=2,3 as well as for the large NN limit, while for other NN one can find numerical results. For two flavors, we find that CP is always broken as long as the quark masses are equal and non-zero, however there is a non-trivial phase boundary for unequal quark masses, which we find numerically. For F3F\geq 3 we obtain an intricate phase boundary which reproduces the various quark mass limits. All our results are in agreement with the predictions for ordinary QCD that were based on anomaly matching arguments for generalized symmetries and the effective chiral Lagrangian. We also briefly comment on the domain wall solutions first discussed by Draper, and are able to present analytic results for the simplest case of SU(2)SU(2) with one flavor.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.06252,
  title  = {Spontaneous CP Breaking in a QCD-like Theory},
  author = {Csaba Csáki and Maximilian Ruhdorfer and Taewook Youn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.06252},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

36 pages, 7 figures; v2: Minor changes. Matches published version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:33:22.744Z