Uncovering an Axion Mechanism with the EDM Portfolio

TL;DR

This paper explores how new sources of CP-violation in beyond Standard Model sectors can influence electric dipole moments across various systems, offering insights into the strong CP problem's resolution mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates how BSM CP-violation sources affect the $ heta$ term and EDM patterns, confirming effective field theory predictions and highlighting the potential of EDM measurements to resolve the strong CP problem.

Findings

Renormalization of $ heta$ by BSM CP-violation sources

Predicted patterns of electric dipole moments in multiple systems

Planned experiments can distinguish between strong CP solutions

Abstract

Effective field theory arguments suggest that if BSM sectors contain new sources of CP-violation that couple to QCD, these sources will renormalize the $\theta$ term and frustrate ultraviolet solutions to the strong CP problem. Simultaneously, they will generate distinctive patterns of low-energy electric dipole moments in hadronic, nuclear, atomic, and molecular systems. Observing such patterns thus provides evidence that strong CP is solved by an infrared relaxation mechanism. We illustrate the renormalization of $\theta$ and the collections of EDMs generated in a several models of BSM physics, confirming effective field theory expectations, and demonstrate that measurements of ratios of electric dipole moments at planned experiments can provide valuable input on the resolution of the strong CP problem.