English

Is CP a Gauge Symmetry?

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2010-11-01 v1

Abstract

We suggest here that CP is a discrete {\it gauge} symmetry, and is therefore not violated by quantum gravity. We show that four dimensional CP can arise as a discrete gauge symmetry in theories with dimensional compactification, if the original number of Minkowski dimensions equals 8k+18k+1, 8k+28k+2 or 8k+38k+3, and if there are certain restrictions on the gauge group; these conditions are met by superstrings. CP may then be broken spontaneously below 10910^9 GeV, explaining the observed CP violation in the kaon system without inducing a large EDMN. We discuss the phenomenology of such models, as well as the peculiar nature of cosmic ``CP strings'' which could be produced at the compactification scale. Such strings have the curious property that a particle carried around the string is turned into its CP conjugate. A single CP string renders four dimensional spacetime nonorientable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-ph/9205202,
  title  = {Is CP a Gauge Symmetry?},
  author = {Kiwoon Choi and David B. Kaplan and Ann E. Nelson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/9205202},
  year   = {2010}
}

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R2 v1 2026-07-22T14:15:08.850Z