Statistical coupling constants from hidden sector entanglement

TL;DR

This paper explores how entanglement between visible and extra sectors in string theory leads to statistical fluctuations in coupling constants, affecting experimental fits and potentially revealing new physics.

Contribution

It introduces a framework where visible sector couplings are treated as quantum statistical variables due to entanglement with hidden sectors, offering a novel way to interpret experimental data.

Findings

Couplings exhibit irreducible variance due to entanglement.

Including variance improves fits to experimental data.

Enhanced sensitivity to new physics through statistical coupling analysis.

Abstract

String theory predicts that the couplings of Nature descend from dynamical fields. All known string-motivated particle physics models also come with a wide range of possible extra sectors. It is common to posit that such moduli are frozen to a background value, and that extra sectors can be nearly completely decoupled. Performing a partial trace over all sectors other than the visible sector generically puts the visible sector in a mixed state, with coupling constants drawn from a quantum statistical ensemble. An observable consequence of this entanglement between visible and extra sectors is that the reported values of couplings will appear to have an irreducible variance. Including this variance in fits to experimental data gives an important additional parameter that can be used to distinguish this scenario from the case where couplings are treated as fixed parameters. There is a consequent interplay between energy range and precision of an experiment that allows an extended reach for new physics.