Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Strong CP violation and large-Nc spin-flavor symmetry

Thomas R. Richardson1,*

  • *Contact author: thomas.richardson@berkeley.edu

Phys. Rev. D 112, 095045 – Published 25 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1jb4-tqpn

Abstract

We revisit the contribution of the QCD θ¯ term to the CP-violating pion-nucleon couplings and the nucleon electric dipole moment in a combined large-Nc and chiral perturbation theory framework. In particular, we approach this issue through the emergent spin-flavor symmetry of the baryon sector at large but finite Nc. We obtain good agreement with previous analyses for the pion-nucleon couplings and show that the large-Nc framework indicates that tree-level contributions to the electric dipole moment possibly play a dominant role. The spin-flavor symmetry also enables us to provide novel constraints on CP-violating pion-Δ couplings, as well as the Δ electric dipole moment and ΔN transition moment.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (96)

  1. A. D. Sakharov, Violation of CP in variance, C asymmetry, and baryon asymmetry of the universe, Sov. Phys. Usp. 34, 392 (1991).
  2. M. B. Gavela, P. Hernández, J. Orloff, and O. Pène, Standard model CP-violation and baryon asymmetry, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 09, 795 (1994).
  3. M. Gavela, P. Hernandez, J. Orloff, O. Péne, and C. Quimbay, Standard model CP-violation and baryon asymmetry (II). Finite temperature, Nucl. Phys. B430, 382 (1994).
  4. P. Huet and E. Sather, Electroweak baryogenesis and standard model CP violation, Phys. Rev. D 51, 379 (1995).
  5. T. Konstandin, T. Prokopec, and M. G. Schmidt, Axial currents from CKM matrix CP violation and electroweak baryogenesis, Nucl. Phys. B679, 246 (2004).
  6. D. E. Morrissey and M. J. Ramsey-Musolf, Electroweak baryogenesis, New J. Phys. 14, 125003 (2012).
  7. A. A. Belavin, A. M. Polyakov, A. S. Schwartz, and Yu. S. Tyupkin, Pseudoparticle solutions of the Yang-Mills equations, Phys. Lett. 59B, 85 (1975).
  8. G. ’t Hooft, Symmetry breaking through Bell-Jackiw anomalies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 37, 8 (1976).
  9. R. Jackiw and C. Rebbi, Vacuum periodicity in a Yang-Mills quantum theory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 37, 172 (1976).
  10. C. G. Callan, R. F. Dashen, and D. J. Gross, The structure of the gauge theory vacuum, Phys. Lett. 63B, 334 (1976).
  11. V. Baluni, CP-nonconserving effects in quantum chromodynamics, Phys. Rev. D 19, 2227 (1979).
  12. R. J. Crewther, P. Di Vecchia, G. Veneziano, and E. Witten, Chiral estimate of the electric dipole moment of the neutron in quantum chromodynamics, Phys. Lett. 88B, 123 (1979).
  13. C. Abel et al., Measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 081803 (2020).
  14. W. H. Hockings and U. van Kolck, The electric dipole form factor of the nucleon, Phys. Lett. B 605, 273 (2005).
  15. E. Mereghetti, W. H. Hockings, and U. van Kolck, The effective Chiral Lagrangian from the Theta term, Ann. Phys. (Amsterdam) 325, 2363 (2010).
  16. E. Mereghetti, J. de Vries, W. H. Hockings, C. M. Maekawa, and U. van Kolck, The electric dipole form factor of the nucleon in chiral perturbation theory to sub-leading order, Phys. Lett. B 696, 97 (2011).
  17. M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Theta-induced electric dipole moment of the neutron via QCD sum rules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 2526 (1999).
  18. M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Theta vacua, QCD sum rules, and the neutron electric dipole moment, Nucl. Phys. B573, 177 (2000).
  19. M. Pospelov and A. Ritz, Electric dipole moments as probes of new physics, Ann. Phys. (Amsterdam) 318, 119 (2005).
  20. Y. Ema, T. Gao, M. Pospelov, and A. Ritz, Chiral properties of the nucleon interpolating current and θ-dependent observables, Phys. Rev. D 110, 034028 (2024).
  21. J. Hisano, J. Y. Lee, N. Nagata, and Y. Shimizu, Reevaluation of neutron electric dipole moment with QCD sum rules, Phys. Rev. D 85, 114044 (2012).
  22. H. J. Schnitzer, The soft-pion skyrmion Lagrangian and strong CP-violation, Phys. Lett. 139B, 217 (1984).
  23. H. A. Riggs and H. J. Schnitzer, CP-violating Yukawa couplings in the Skyrme model and the neutron electric dipole moment, Phys. Lett. B 305, 252 (1993).
  24. L. J. Dixon, A. Langnau, Y. Nir, and B. Warr, The electric dipole moment of the neutron in the Skyrme model, Phys. Lett. B 253, 459 (1991).
  25. M. A. Morgan and G. A. Miller, The neutron electric dipole moment in the cloudy bag model, Phys. Lett. B 179, 379 (1986).
  26. M. M. Musakhanov and Z. Z. Israilov, The electric dipole moment of the neutron in the chiral bag model, Phys. Lett. 137B, 419 (1984).
  27. D. K. Hong, H.-C. Kim, S. Siwach, and H.-U. Yee, The electric dipole moment of the nucleons in holographic QCD, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2007) 036.
  28. L. Bartolini, F. Bigazzi, S. Bolognesi, A. L. Cotrone, and A. Manenti, Neutron electric dipole moment from gauge/string duality, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 091601 (2017).
  29. L. Bartolini, F. Bigazzi, S. Bolognesi, A. L. Cotrone, and A. Manenti, Theta dependence in holographic QCD, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2017) 029.
  30. J. Dragos, T. Luu, A. Shindler, J. de Vries, and A. Yousif, Confirming the existence of the strong CP problem in Lattice QCD with the gradient flow, Phys. Rev. C 103, 015202 (2021).
  31. T. Bhattacharya, V. Cirigliano, R. Gupta, E. Mereghetti, and B. Yoon, Contribution of the QCD Θ-term to nucleon electric dipole moment, Phys. Rev. D 103, 114507 (2021).
  32. J. Liang, A. Alexandru, T. Draper, K.-F. Liu, B. Wang, G. Wang, and Y.-B. Yang, Nucleon electric dipole moment from the θ term with lattice chiral fermions, Phys. Rev. D 108, 094512 (2023).
  33. C. Alexandrou, A. Athenodorou, K. Hadjiyiannakou, and A. Todaro, Neutron electric dipole moment using lattice QCD simulations at the physical point, Phys. Rev. D 103, 054501 (2021).
  34. K.-F. Liu, Lattice QCD and the neutron electric dipole moment, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 75, 377 (2025).
  35. S. L. Adler and W. A. Bardeen, Absence of higher-order corrections in the anomalous axial-vector divergence equation, Phys. Rev. 182, 1517 (1969).
  36. S. L. Adler, Axial-vector vertex in spinor electrodynamics, Phys. Rev. 177, 2426 (1969).
  37. J. S. Bell and R. Jackiw, A PCAC puzzle: Π0→γγ in the σ-model, Il Nuovo Cimento A (1965-1970) 60, 47 (1969).
  38. G. ’t Hooft, A Planar diagram theory for strong interactions, Nucl. Phys. B72, 461 (1974).
  39. S. Coleman and E. Witten, Chiral-symmetry breakdown in Large-N chromodynamics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 45, 100 (1980).
  40. G. Veneziano, U(1) without instantons, Nucl. Phys. B159, 213 (1979).
  41. E. Witten, Current algebra theorems for the U(1) “Goldstone boson,” Nucl. Phys. B156, 269 (1979).
  42. P. Di Vecchia and G. Veneziano, Chiral dynamics in the large N limit, Nucl. Phys. B171, 253 (1980).
  43. P. Di Vecchia, An effective Lagrangian with no U(1) problem in CPN−1 models and QCD, Phys. Lett. 85B, 357 (1979).
  44. E. Witten, Large N chiral dynamics, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 128, 363 (1980).
  45. R. Kaiser and H. Leutwyler, Large nc in chiral perturbation theory, Eur. Phys. J. C 17, 623 (2000).
  46. C. Rosenzweig and C. G. Trahern, Is the effective Lagrangian for quantum chromodynamics a σ model?, Phys. Rev. D 21, 3388 (1980).
  47. N. Ohta, Vacuum structureand Chiral charge quantization in the Large N limit, Prog. Theor. Phys. 66, 1408 (1981); 67, 993(E) (1982).
  48. K. Kawarabayashi and N. Ohta, The problem of η in the large N limit: Effective Lagrangian approach, Nucl. Phys. B175, 477 (1980).
  49. K. Kawarabayashi and N. Ohta, On the partial conservation of the U(1) current, Prog. Theor. Phys. 66, 1789 (1981).
  50. A. Pich and E. de Rafael, Strong CP-violation in an effective chiral Lagrangian approach, Nucl. Phys. B367, 313 (1991).
  51. B. Borasoy, The electric dipole moment of the neutron in chiral perturbation theory, Phys. Rev. D 61, 114017 (2000).
  52. K. Ottnad, B. Kubis, U.-G. Meißner, and F.-K. Guo, New insights into the neutron electric dipole moment, Phys. Lett. B 687, 42 (2010).
  53. S. Aoki and T. Hatsuda, Strong CP violation and the neutron electric dipole moment reexamined, Phys. Rev. D 45, 2427 (1992).
  54. R. F. Dashen and A. V. Manohar, Baryon-pion couplings from large Nc QCD, Phys. Lett. B 315, 425 (1993).
  55. R. F. Dashen, E. E. Jenkins, and A. V. Manohar, The 1/Nc expansion for baryons, Phys. Rev. D 49, 4713 (1994).
  56. R. F. Dashen, E. E. Jenkins, and A. V. Manohar, Spin flavor structure of large Nc baryons, Phys. Rev. D 51, 3697 (1995).
  57. J. L. Gervais and B. Sakita, Large-N baryonic soliton and quarks, Phys. Rev. D 30, 1795 (1984).
  58. J. L. Gervais and B. Sakita, Large-N QCD baryon dynamics—Exact results from its relation to the static strong-coupling theory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 52, 87 (1984).
  59. C. Carone, H. Georgi, and S. Osofsky, On spin independence in large Nc baryons, Phys. Lett. B 322, 227 (1994).
  60. M. A. Luty and J. March-Russell, Baryons from quarks in the 1/N expansion, Nucl. Phys. B426, 71 (1994).
  61. E. Jenkins and A. V. Manohar, Chiral corrections to the baryon axial currents, Phys. Lett. B 259, 353 (1991).
  62. R. Flores-Mendieta, C. P. Hofmann, E. E. Jenkins, and A. V. Manohar, On the structure of large Nc cancellations in baryon chiral perturbation theory, Phys. Rev. D 62, 034001 (2000).
  63. E. Jenkins, Chiral Lagrangian for baryons in the 1 Nc expansion, Phys. Rev. D 53, 2625 (1996).
  64. E. Jenkins and A. V. Manohar, Baryon chiral perturbation theory using a heavy fermion Lagrangian, Phys. Lett. B 255, 558 (1991).
  65. K. Cichy, E. Garcia-Ramos, K. Jansen, K. Ottnad, and C. Urbach, Non-perturbative test of the Witten-Veneziano formula from Lattice QCD, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2015) 020.
  66. S. Dürr, Z. Fodor, C. Hoelbling, and T. Kurth, Precision study of the SU(3) topological susceptibility in the continuum, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2007) 055.
  67. L. Del Debbio, L. Giusti, and C. Pica, Topological susceptibility in SU(3) gauge theory, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 032003 (2005).
  68. M. Lüscher and F. Palombi, Universality of the topological susceptibility in the SU(3) gauge theory, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2010) 110.
  69. M. Cè, C. Consonni, G. P. Engel, and L. Giusti, Non-Gaussianities in the topological charge distribution of the SU(3) Yang-Mills theory, Phys. Rev. D 92, 074502 (2015).
  70. A. Chowdhury, A. Harindranath, J. Maiti, and P. Majumdar, Topological susceptibility in lattice Yang-Mills theory with open boundary condition, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2014) 045.
  71. A. Athenodorou and M. Teper, The glueball spectrum of SU(3) gauge theory in 3+1 dimension, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2020) 172.
  72. C. Bonati, M. D’Elia, and A. Scapellato, θ dependence in SU(3) Yang-Mills theory from analytic continuation, Phys. Rev. D 93, 025028 (2016).
  73. Y. Aoki et al., FLAG review 2021, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 869 (2022).
  74. Y. Aoki et al., FLAG review 2024, arXiv:2411.04268.
  75. S. Peris and E. De Rafael, On the large-Nc behaviour of the L7 coupling in χPT, Phys. Lett. B 348, 539 (1995).
  76. J. de Vries, E. Mereghetti, and A. Walker-Loud, Baryon mass splittings and strong CP violation in SU(3) chiral perturbation theory, Phys. Rev. C 92, 045201 (2015).
  77. J. de Vries, E. Mereghetti, C.-Y. Seng, and A. Walker-Loud, Lattice QCD spectroscopy for hadronic CP violation, Phys. Lett. B 766, 254 (2017).
  78. S. Aoki et al., Review of lattice results concerning low energy particle physics, Eur. Phys. J. C 74, 2890 (2014).
  79. S. Borsanyi, S. Durr, Z. Fodor, C. Hoelbling, S. D. Katz, S. Krieg, L. Lellouch, T. Lippert, A. Portelli, K. K. Szabo, and B. C. Toth, Ab initio calculation of the neutron-proton mass difference, Science 347, 1452 (2015).
  80. S. R. Beane, K. Orginos, and M. J. Savage, Strong-isospin violation in the neutron-proton mass difference from fully-dynamical Lattice QCD and PQQCD, Nucl. Phys. B768, 38 (2007).
  81. T. Blum, R. Zhou, T. Doi, M. Hayakawa, T. Izubuchi, S. Uno, and N. Yamada, Electromagnetic mass splittings of the low lying hadrons and quark masses from 2+1 flavor lattice QCD+QED, Phys. Rev. D 82, 094508 (2010).
  82. R. Horsley, J. Najjar, Y. Nakamura, D. Pleiter, P. E. L. Rakow, G. Schierholz, and J. M. Zanotti (QCDSF-UKQCD Collaboration), Isospin breaking in octet baryon mass splittings, Phys. Rev. D 86, 114511 (2012).
  83. G. M. de Divitiis, R. Frezzotti, V. Lubicz, G. Martinelli, R. Petronzio, G. C. Rossi, F. Sanfilippo, S. Simula, and N. Tantalo (RM123 Collaboration), Leading isospin breaking effects on the lattice, Phys. Rev. D 87, 114505 (2013).
  84. S. Borsanyi, S. Dürr, Z. Fodor, J. Frison, C. Hoelbling, S. D. Katz, S. Krieg, T. Kurth, L. Lellouch, T. Lippert, A. Portelli, A. Ramos, A. Sastre, and K. Szabo, Isospin splittings in the light baryon octet from lattice QCD and QED, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 252001 (2013).
  85. V. Baru, C. Hanhart, M. Hoferichter, B. Kubis, A. Nogga, and D. R. Phillips, Precision calculation of threshold π−d scattering, πN scattering lengths, and the GMO sum rule, Nucl. Phys. A872, 69 (2011).
  86. J. Bsaisou, J. de Vries, C. Hanhart, S. Liebig, U.-G. Meißner, D. Minossi, A. Nogga, and A. Wirzba, Nuclear electric dipole moments in Chiral effective field theory, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2015) 104.
  87. J. De Vries, P. Draper, K. Fuyuto, J. Kozaczuk, and D. Sutherland, Indirect signs of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, Phys. Rev. D 99, 015042 (2019).
  88. J. Bsaisou, C. Hanhart, S. Liebig, U. G. Meißner, A. Nogga, and A. Wirzba, The electric dipole moment of the deuteron from the QCD θ-term, Eur. Phys. J. A 49, 31 (2013).
  89. D. Samart, C. Schat, M. R. Schindler, and D. R. Phillips, Time-reversal-invariance-violating nucleon-nucleon potential in the 1/nc expansion, Phys. Rev. C 94, 024001 (2016).
  90. S. Bhattacharya, K. Fuyuto, E. Mereghetti, and T. R. Richardson, Toward the determination of CP-odd pion-nucleon couplings, Phys. Rev. C 112, 025501 (2025).
  91. C.-Y. Seng and M. Ramsey-Musolf, Parity- and time reversal-violating pion nucleon couplings: Higher order Chiral matching relations, Phys. Rev. C 96, 065204 (2017).
  92. L. Gandor, H. Krebs, and E. Epelbaum, Parity and time-reversal violating nuclear forces with explicit Δ-excitations, Eur. Phys. J. A 60, 211 (2024).
  93. E. E. Jenkins, A. V. Manohar, J. W. Negele, and A. Walker-Loud, Lattice test of 1/Nc baryon mass relations, Phys. Rev. D 81, 014502 (2010).
  94. F.-K. Guo and U.-G. Meißner, Baryon electric dipole moments from strong CP violation, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2012) 097.
  95. S. Navas et al. (Particle Data Group), Review of particle physics, Phys. Rev. D 110, 030001 (2024).
  96. E. Jenkins and A. V. Manohar, Baryon magnetic moments in the expansion, Phys. Lett. B 335, 452 (1994).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation