Helicity selection rules can suppress the leading contributions from dimension-6 operators in the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), reducing sensitivity to potential new physics. This paper explores how the interference contributions from the τ lepton’s anomalous dipole moment is restored in different observables, in particular comparing the sensitivity to SMEFT operators of quantum information observable and more traditional spin correlations. We compute the sensitivity of various observables—including entanglement measures, Bell inequality violations, and quantum uncertainties—to new physics effects using Monte Carlo simulations. Spin correlation observables are found to outperform both the integrated cross section and quantum information observables in sensitivity to both C P -conserving and -violating effects, improving the sensitivity to the scale of new physics by up to a factor of 3. Our results suggest that quantum information observables are suboptimal probes for resurrecting the interference, and more in general to disentangle the C P properties of new physics.
Helicity selection rules can suppress the leading contributions from dimension-6 operators in the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), reducing sensitivity to potential new physics. This paper explores how the interference contributions from the τ lepton’s anomalous dipole moment is restored in different observables, in particular comparing the sensitivity to SMEFT operators of quantum information observable and more traditional spin correlations. We compute the sensitivity of various observables—including entanglement measures, Bell inequality violations, and quantum uncertainties—to new physics effects using Monte Carlo simulations. Spin correlation observables are found to outperform both the integrated cross section and quantum information observables in sensitivity to both C P -conserving and -violating effects, improving the sensitivity to the scale of new physics by up to a factor of 3. Our results suggest that quantum information observables are suboptimal probes for resurrecting the interference, and more in general to disentangle the C P properties of new physics.
New sources of charge-parity (CP) violation beyond those described in the Standard Model (SM) are required to explain the observed matter--antimatter asymmetry of the Universe. The Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) provides a framework to introduce additional electroweak sources of CP-odd physics in a model-independent manner. However, these CP-violating signatures are mostly degenerate to CP-even SMEFT operators in polarisation-blind observables, distinguishable only in the SM-New Physics (NP) interference using the azimuthal decay angle. Using Quantum Tomography techniques, we present a new approach to constraining these NP effects. Reconstructing the spin density matrix (SDM) of a diboson system, we go beyond `interference resurrection' to exploit the full signature of the Beyond-SM physics, including the pure quadratic NP terms. We show that this approach provides superior simultaneous sensitivity to characteristic features of CP-even and CP-odd contributions, including effects not fully captured by traditional angular observables.
Top and anti-top quark pair production at LHC provides a unique setting to probe non-classical correlations at the TeV scale. We study quantum information (QI) properties of the ttˉ spin state in pp collisions at s=13 TeV within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), focusing on dimension-6 operators that induce anomalous chromo- and weak dipole moments of the top quark within their current experimental bounds. The ttˉ spin density matrix is reconstructed from the joint angular distribution of the final state charged leptons in the k-r-n helicity basis. We analyze three complementary QI quantities: concurrence-based quantum entanglement (QE), geometric quantum discord (GQD), and the Bell parameter,across four ttˉ invariant-mass bins. Within the Standard Model (SM), non-vanishing QE appears only near threshold (mttˉ≲400 GeV), while GQD remains nonzero across the full phase space, indicating persistent non-classical correlations even for separable states. Anomalous chromo-dipole interactions modify these observables primarily near threshold: μ^t induces asymmetric shifts, whereas d^t produces a mild symmetric response without Bell inequality violation. Among weak dipole operators, the CP-even coupling C2V generates the largest deformation of the QI observables, while ΔC1A,V leave them unchanged. These results demonstrate that QI observables derived from the ttˉ spin density matrix provide a complementary probe of anomalous top-quark interactions with distinct sensitivity to CP-even and CP-odd operator structures.
We investigate the quantum properties of heavy-fermion pairs, such as ttˉ or τ+τ−, produced in lepton-lepton collisions with polarised beams. Focusing on spin correlations, entanglement, Bell-inequality violation, and quantum-information-theoretic measures such as purity and magic, we analyse how beam polarisation shapes the structure of the spin-density matrix. We derive analytic expressions for a wide range of helicity configurations, including both Standard Model contributions and generic new-physics effects parametrised by scalar, vector, and tensor four-fermion operators within an effective field theory framework. We show that beam polarisation unlocks a substantially richer set of spin configurations and significantly enhances sensitivity to non-standard interactions. As a phenomenological application, we study ttˉ production at a future linear collider and demonstrate that quantum observables provide a comprehensive and complementary probe of top-quark interactions and stronger constraints on the scale of new physics.
A bstract We investigate the quantum properties of heavy-fermion pairs, such as tt t t ¯ or τ + τ − , produced in lepton-lepton collisions with polarised beams. Focusing on spin correlations, entanglement, Bell-inequality violation, and quantum-information-theoretic measures such as purity and magic, we analyse how beam polarisation shapes the structure of the spin-density matrix. We derive analytic expressions for a wide range of helicity configurations, including both Standard Model contributions and generic new physics effects parametrised by scalar, vector, and tensor four-fermion operators within an effective field theory framework. We show that beam polarisation unlocks a substantially richer set of spin configurations and significantly enhances sensitivity to non-standard interactions. As a phenomenological application, we study tt t t ¯ production at a future linear collider and demonstrate that quantum observables provide a comprehensive and complementary probe of top-quark interactions and stronger constraints on the scale of new physics.
We investigate quantum entanglement and Bell-inequality violation in top-antitop pair production at future lepton colliders such as the International Linear Collider and multi-TeV muon colliders. Within the Standard Model (SM), the process proceeds through s -channel γ and Z exchange and exhibits characteristic spin-correlation patterns that encode a nontrivial amount of entanglement. We then examine how these features are modified in several well-motivated extensions of the SM; (i) a neutral scalar mediator that couples to charged leptons and top quarks via Yukawa interactions and contributes as an additional s -channel exchange, (ii) the minimal gauged U ( 1 ) B − L model, which introduces a new neutral gauge boson Z ′ coupling vectorially to SM fermions, and (iii) a Randall-Sundrum scenario, in which the exchange of massive Kaluza-Klein gravitons arising from a warped extra dimension induces additional spin-dependent interactions. For all cases, we evaluate quantum-information observables including the entanglement marker, the concurrence, and the maximal Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt parameter, and study their dependence on the center-of-mass energy, scattering angle, and model parameters. We find that, relative to the SM expectation, the entanglement is typically reduced in the scalar-mediator scenario, while sizable deviations can arise in the U ( 1 ) B − L and Randall-Sundrum cases for phenomenologically relevant regions of parameter space. These results demonstrate the potential of quantum-information observables as sensitive probes of new particles and their interaction patterns in future lepton colliders.
Abstract The measurement of quantum entanglement can provide a new and most sensitive probe to physics beyond the Standard Model. We use the concurrence of the top-quark pair spin states produced at colliders to constrain the magnetic dipole term in the coupling between top quark and gluons, that of τ τ -lepton pair spin states to bound contact interactions and that of τ τ -lepton pairs or two-photons spin states from the decay of the Higgs boson in trying to distinguish between CP-even and odd couplings. These four examples show the power of the new approach as well as its limitations. We show that differences in the entanglement in the top-quark and τ τ -lepton pair production cross sections can provide constraints better than those previously estimated from total cross sections or classical correlations. Instead, the final states in the decays of the Higgs boson remain maximally entangled even in the presence of CP-odd couplings and cannot be used to set bounds on new physics. We discuss the violation of Bell inequalities featured in all four processes.