English

Temperature-Dependent CPT Violation: Constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-05-21 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

In this study, we explore temperature-dependent CPT violation during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) through electron-positron mass asymmetries parametrized by b0(T)=αT2b_0(T) = \alpha T^2. The T2T^2 scaling naturally evades stringent laboratory bounds at zero temperature while allowing for significant CPT violation at MeV scales in the early universe \cite{ParticleDataGroup:2024cfk}. Using a modified version of the BBN code \faGithub \href{https://github.com/vallima/PRyMordial}{\,\texttt{PRyMordial}} with dynamically-solved chemical potentials and appropriate finite-mass corrections, we constrain electron-positron mass differences from observed abundances of Helium-4, Deuterium, and NeffN_{\rm eff}. We find that α\alpha must be greater than or approximately equal to 10610^{-6} GeV1^{-1} for keV-scale mass differences at BBN. All three observables show no simultaneous 1σ1\sigma overlap, though pairwise combinations allow for constrained regions of parameter space. We present three toy models demonstrating how b0(T)T2b_0(T) \propto T^2 arises from field-theoretic mechanisms, including temperature-driven phase transitions. These results provide the most stringent constraints on early-universe CPT violation in this regime, probing parameter space inaccessible to laboratory experiments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.06259,
  title  = {Temperature-Dependent CPT Violation: Constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis},
  author = {Gabriela Barenboim and Anne-Katherine Burns},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.06259},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

29 pages, 5 figures, updated version which was accepted to PRD

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:58:27.923Z