Related papers: Perspectives on QCD, Topology and the Strong CP Pr…
In this chapter we introduce the $\theta$-dependence and the topological properties of QCD, features of the strongly interacting sector which give rise to the strong CP problem in the more general context of the Standard Model of particle…
Three possible strategies have been advocated to solve the strong CP problem. The first is the axion, a dynamical mechanism that relaxes any initial value of the CP violating angle $\bar{\theta}$ to zero. The second is the imposition of new…
While $CP$ violation has never been observed in the strong interactions, the QCD Lagrangian admits a $CP$-odd topological interaction proportional to the so called $\theta$ angle, which weighs the contributions to the partition function…
These lectures discuss the $\theta$ parameter of QCD. After an introduction to anomalies in four and two dimensions, the parameter is introduced. That such topological parameters can have physical effects is illustrated with two dimensional…
Recent studies have claimed that the strong $CP$ problem does not occur in QCD, proposing a new order of limits in volume and topological sectors when studying observables on the lattice. In order to shed light on this issue, we study the…
In the standard model QCD Lagrangian, a term of CP violating gluon density is theoretically expected to have a physical coefficient $\bar{\theta}$ of the order of unity. However, the upper bound on the electric dipole moment of neutron…
Imposing CP or P forces the QCD topological angle to be either $\bar\theta=0$ or $\bar\theta=\pi$. However, only the former is phenomenologically viable. This implies that the assumption of CP or P alone cannot provide a framework for…
We review results concerning the theta dependence of 4D SU(N) gauge theories and QCD, where theta is the coefficient of the CP-violating topological term in the Lagrangian. In particular, we discuss theta dependence in the large-N limit.…
We investigate a controversial issue on the measure of CP violation in strong in teractions. In the presence of nontrivial topological gauge configurations, the $\theta$-term in QCD has a profound effect: it breaks the CP symmetry. The…
The QCD Lagrangian contains a CP violating gluon density term with a physical coefficient $\bar{\theta}$. The upper bound on the electric dipole moment of neutron implies that the value of $\bar{\theta}$ should be extremely small rather…
Conventionally, the strong-$CP$ problem is assumed to be a naturalness puzzle, with the axion solution sometimes viewed as an ad hoc fix. Gravity is either ignored or taken as a threat for the global Peccei-Quinn symmetry. We explain that…
We exploit the non-perturbative result that the $\theta$ angle which defines the vacuum structure is not a $c$-number free parameter, as suggested by the instanton semi-classical approximation, but instead one of the points of the spectrum…
The topological susceptibility of the QCD vacuum provides an understanding of $\theta$-vacua as vacua of a Chern-Simons gauge theory. In this way, it gives an immediate proof of the physicality of the boundary $\theta$-term. This makes the…
I describe how the QCD vacuum structure, necessary to resolve the $U(1)_A$ problem, predicts the presence of a P, T and CP violating term proportional to the vacuum angle $\bar{\theta}$. To agree with experimental bounds, however, this…
The existence of topological solutions and axial anomaly open a possibility of P and CP violation in QCD. For a reason that has not yet been established conclusively, this possibility is not realized in strong interactions - the…
We present recent results on the theta-dependence of four-dimensional SU(N) gauge theories, where theta is the coefficient of the CP-violating topological term in the Lagrangian. In particular, we study the scaling behavior of these…
The conventional view is that a solution of the strong CP problem lies beyond QCD. A strong argument supporting this view is that the chiral expansion shows that observables depend on theta (unless a quark mass is zero); this eliminates the…
In an effort to clarify the significance of the recent observation of long-range topological charge coherence in QCD gauge configurations, we study the local topological charge distributions in two-dimensional $CP^{N-1}$ sigma models, using…
One often hears that the strong $CP$ problem is the one problem which cannot be solved by anthropic reasoning. We argue that this is not so. Due to nonperturbative dynamics, states with a different $CP$ violating paramenter $\theta$ acquire…
It is generally accepted that consistent coupling to quantum gravity implies that any low energy free parameter is in reality the vacuum expectation value of some local quantum field. In this note we present a modest attempt to prove this…