A long standing possibility is that CP violation, which arises in the Standard Model only from CP violating phases of the CKM matrix (for quarks) and PMNS matrix (for leptons) might have a cause independent of the fermion generation changes that the other three parameters of the CKM matrix and PMNS matrix, respectively, describe. Thus, the CKM matrix and PMNS matrixes may each simply represent the combined effects arising from two different causes.
The new preprint, whose abstract is below, considers the possibility that CP violation in the CKM matrix arises, in whole or in part, from gravitational effects.
If so, the CKM matrix might run with both the strength of the gravitational field in the vicinity of the particles undergoing CP violating interaction and also with the energy scale of the interaction.
The claim that this explanation can fit the data on CP violation and post-dict its magnitude entitles this hypothesis to a closer look, even though it would seem to violate the strong equivalence principle of General Relativity (much like the external field effect in MOND seems to) which is particularly concerning because the author considers gravity only in the Newtonian approximation. The claimed CPT violation of this theory is also a big ask.
This proposal appeals to the reductionist trend in physics and makes a dent in both finding a derived origin for one of the currently only experimentally determined fundamental constants of the Standard Model, and in finding connections between the Standard Model and gravity.
This proposal is also attractive because it could theoretically be tested, with high precision measurements of Earth based colliders where the strength of the surface gravitational field is different, with space or lunar based collider experiments, or with "natural experiments" based upon astronomy observations or comic rays with particles that start to decay at different altitudes.
In sum, while this is a pretty radical proposal that is unlikely to work out, it deserves at least a closer look, relative to many other less promising radical hypotheses.
The impact of earth's gravity on neutral mesons dynamics is analyzed. The main effect of a Newtonian potential is to couple the strangeness and bottomness oscillations with the quark zitterbewegung oscillations. This coupling is responsible for the observed CP violation in the three types of experiments analyzed here: (i) indirect violation in the mixing, (ii) direct violation in the decay to one final state and (iii) violation in interference between decays with and without mixing.
The three violation parameters associated with these experiments are predicted in agreement with the experimental data. The amplitude of the violation is linear with respect to the strength of gravity so that this new mechanism allows to consider matter dominated cosmological evolutions providing the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe.
Jean-Marcel Rax, "Gravity induced CP violation in mesons mixing, decay and interference experiments" arXiv:2503.09465 (March 12, 2025).
The body text in the introduction further clarifies the proposal stating that:
Since the first observation of long-lived kaons decays into pairs of charged pions, reported sixty years ago by Christenson, Cronin, Fitch and Turlay [1], many complementary observables associated with flavored neutral mesons CP violation (CPV) have been identified, measured and interpreted. The canonical framework of interpretation is the standard model (SM) through the adjustment between the Kobayashi-Maskawa (KM) complex phase and the experimental values of the violation parameters. In this study, we focus on the most documented and clearest experimental evidence of CPV and we demonstrate that gravity induced CPV provides a pertinent framework to interpret these experiments and to predict the violation parameters, as a function of earth’s gravity, in agreement with the experimental data. As a consequence, far from any massive object, i.e. in a flat Lorentzian space-time, the Cabibbo-KobayashiMaskawa (CKM) matrix must be considered free from any CPV phase as CPV effects are just gravity induced near massive objects like earth.
The same author appears to have first introduced this concept in a paper from May 27, 2024 (also currently not published). The 2024 paper's abstract is as follows:
The impact of earth's gravity on neutral kaons oscillations is analyzed. The main effect of a Newtonian potential is to couple the strangeness oscillation and the strange quarks zitterbewegung. This coupling is responsible for the observed CP violations.
Gravity induced CP violation is in fact a CPT violation with T conservation rather than a T violation with CPT conservation, but the finite lifetime of the short-lived kaons induces a rotation of the imaginary CPT parameter such that it becomes real and the effect is observed as a CP and T violation. Both indirect and direct violation parameters are predicted in agreement with the experimental data.
The authors only two other papers, also both in 2024, also develop related ideas from slightly different perspectives.
The 2025 paper goes further by making some phenomenological calculations apply the 2024 theory to some specific kinds of high energy physics experimental data.
The author does not appear to have any actually published papers yet, but he is affiliated with the science faculty of a legitimate university in Paris, France, and the papers generally conform, at first glance at least, in character and citation practice to legitimate publications involving this kind of research (which surprisingly few crackpot papers do).
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