New physics vs new paradigms: distinguishing CPT violation from NSI

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of distinguishing CPT violation from non-standard interactions in neutrino experiments, as such tests probe the fundamental paradigm of local relativistic quantum field theories.

Contribution

It highlights the necessity of differentiating CPT violation signals from non-standard interactions to accurately test the underlying physical paradigm.

Findings

Long baseline experiments will significantly improve CPT tests in neutrino physics.

Distinguishing CPT violation from NSI is crucial for understanding the validity of the current paradigm.

The paradigm's validity depends on correctly interpreting experimental signatures.

Abstract

Our way of describing Nature is based on local relativistic quantum field theories, and then CPT symmetry, a natural consequence of Lorentz invariance, locality and hermiticity of the Hamiltonian, is one of the few if not the only prediction that all of them share. Therefore, testing CPT invariance does not test a particular model but the whole paradigm. Current and future long baseline experiments will assess the status of CPT in the neutrino sector at an unprecedented level and thus its distinction from similar experimental signatures arising from non-standard interactions is imperative. Whether the whole paradigm is at stake or just the standard model of neutrinos crucially depends on that.