We propose an experimental test of the gravitational interaction with antimatter by measuring the branching fraction of the CP~violating decay $K_\mathrm{L} \to π^{+} π^{-}$ in space. We show that at the altitude of the International Space Station, gravitational effects may change the level of CP~violation such that a 5$σ$ discrimination may be obtained by collecting the $K_\mathrm{L}$ produced by the cosmic proton flux within a few years.
General relativity (GR) is the current description of gravity in modern physics. One of the cornerstones of GR, as well as Newton's theory of gravity, is the weak equivalence principle (WEP), stating that the trajectory of a freely falling test body is independent of its internal structure and composition. WEP is known to be valid for the normal matter with a high precision. However, due to the rarity of antimatter and weakness of the gravitational forces, the WEP has never been confirmed for antimatter. The current direct bounds on the ratio between the gravitational and inertial masses of th…
A brief introduction to the Standard-Model Extension (SME) approach to testing CPT and Lorentz symmetry is provided. Recent proposals for tests with antimatter are summarized, including gravitational and spectroscopic tests.
A number of experiments are currently underway on antimatter, particularly anti-hydrogen, to test whether the fundamental interactions behave the same way as for matter. Here we present a simple argument showing that a bound on a difference in gravitational forces exerted on matter and antimatter is already so severe that is goes well beyond the sensitivity of the above measurements.
The universality of free fall, the weak equivalence principle (WEP), is a cornerstone of the general theory of relativity, the most precise theory of gravity confirmed in all experiments up to date. The WEP states the equivalence of the inertial, $m$, and gravitational, $m_g$, masses and was tested in numerous occasions with normal matter at relatively low energies. However, there is no proof for the matter and antimatter at high energies. For the antimatter the situation is even less clear -- current direct observations of trapped antihydrogen suggest the limits $-65 < m_g / m < 110$ not excl…
The AEgIS collaboration is underway to directly measure the gravitational free-fall of neutral antimatter atoms. The experiment recently succeded in producing a pulsed cold antihydrogen source for the first time, and has now entered into its second phase, which aims at the formation of a slow antihydrogen beam and subseuqently a first proof-of-concept gravitational measurement. Major upgrades have been made, such as an improved antihydrogen production scheme and a new state-of-the-art antiproton trap. AEgIS was also connected to CERN's new antiproton deceleration facility ELENA and achieved fi…
The gravitational Standard-Model Extension (SME) is the general field-theory based framework for the analysis of CPT and Lorentz violation. In this work we summarize the implications of Lorentz and CPT violation for antimatter gravity in the context of the SME. Implications of various attempts to place indirect limits on anomalous antimatter gravity are considered in the context of SME-based models.
We present a model for the Universe in which quantum anomalies are argued to play an important dual role: they are responsible for generating matter-antimatter asymmetry, but also provide time-dependent contributions to the vacuum energy density of "running-vacuum" type, which drive the Universe evolution. During the inflationary phase of a string-inspired Universe, and its subsequent exit, the existence of primordial gravitational waves induce gravitational anomalies, which couple to the Kalb-Ramond (KR)axion field of the massless gravitational string multiplet. Such anomalous CP violating in…
We demonstrate how loop effects in gravitational backgrounds lead to a difference in the propagation of matter and antimatter, and show this is forbidden in flat space due to CPT and translation invariance. This mechanism, which is naturally present in beyond the standard model (BSM) theories exhibiting C and CP violation, generates a curvature-dependent chemical potential for leptons in the low-energy effective Lagrangian, allowing a matter-antimatter asymmetry to be generated in thermodynamic equilibrium, below the BSM scale.
An equality of particle and antiparticle gravitational interactions holds in general relativity and is supported by indirect observations. Gravity dependence on rotation or spin direction is experimentally constrained for non-relativistic matter. Here a method based on high energy Compton scattering is developed to measure the gravitational interaction of accelerated charged particles. Within that formalism the Compton spectra measured at HERA rule out the speculated anti-gravity possibility for antimatter at a confidence level close to 100%. The same data, however, imply a gravitational CP vi…
The gravitational acceleration of antimatter, $\bar g$, has yet to be directly measured but could change our understanding of gravity, the Universe, and the possibility of a fifth force. Three avenues are apparent for such a measurement: antihydrogen, positronium, and muonium, the last requiring a precision atom interferometer and benefiting from a novel muonium beam under development. The interferometer and its few-picometer alignment and calibration systems appear to be feasible. With 100 nm grating pitch, measurements of $\bar g$ to 10%, 1%, or better can be envisioned. This could constitut…
We show that simple Two Higgs Doublet models still provide a viable explanation for the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via electroweak baryogenesis, even after taking into account the recent order-of-magnitude improvement on the electron-EDM experimental bound by the ACME Collaboration. Moreover we show that, in the region of parameter space where baryogenesis is possible, the gravitational wave spectrum generated at the end of the electroweak phase transition is within the sensitivity reach of the future space-based interferometer LISA.
We describe a new mechanism - radiatively-induced gravitational leptogenesis - for generating the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe. We show how quantum loop effects in C and CP violating theories cause matter and antimatter to propagate differently in the presence of gravity, and prove this is forbidden in flat space by CPT and translation symmetry. This generates a curvature-dependent chemical potential for leptons, allowing a matter-antimatter asymmetry to be generated in thermal equilibrium in the early Universe. The time-dependent dynamics necessary for leptogenesis is provided …
The Standard-Model Extension (SME) provides a comprehensive effective field-theory framework for the study of CPT and Lorentz symmetry. This work reviews the structure and philosophy of the SME and provides some intuitive examples of symmetry violation. The results of recent gravitational tests performed within the SME are summarized including analysis of results from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), sensitivities achieved in short-range gravity experiments, constraints from cosmic-ray data, and results achieved by studying planetary ephemerids. Some proposals an…
Gravity is the weakest of all known forces. Measuring the force of gravity from micro and nano-scale source masses is an essential first step toward low-energy quantum gravity tests. In addition, measuring gravitational forces where the center-of-mass inter-distance is at the sub-mm scale extends the experimentally achievable parameter space for tests of Yukawa-like corrections to Newtonian gravity and tests for higher dimensions proposed to resolve the hierarchy problem of fundamental forces. Here, we propose an experiment using two optically trapped particles in ultrahigh vacuum conditions w…
Many new linearized coefficients for Lorentz violation are discovered in our recent work on the construction of a generic Lorentz-violating effective field theory in curved spacetime. The new coefficients can be constrained by experiments in weak gravity fields. In this work, we compare experiments in different gravitational potentials and study three types of gravity-related experiments: free-fall, gravitational interferometer, and gravitational bound-state experiments. First constraints on the new coefficients for Lorentz violation are extracted from those experiments.
Hawking evaporation of primordial black holes (PBHs) can facilitate the generation of matter-antimatter asymmetry. We focus on ultra-low mass PBHs that briefly dominate the universe and evaporate before the big bang nucleosynthesis. We propose a novel test of this scenario by detecting its characteristic doubly peaked gravitational wave (GW) spectrum in future GW observatories. Here the first order adiabatic perturbation from inflation and from the isocurvature perturbations due to PBH distribution, source tensor perturbations in second-order and lead to two peaks in the induced GW background.…
Large dark matter overdensities can form around black holes of astrophysical and primordial origin as they form and grow. This "dark dress" inevitably affects the dynamical evolution of binary systems, and induces a dephasing in the gravitational waveform that can be probed with future interferometers. In this paper, we introduce a new analytical model to rapidly compute gravitational waveforms in presence of an evolving dark matter distribution. We then present a Bayesian analysis determining when dressed black hole binaries can be distinguished from GR-in-vacuum ones and how well their param…
