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.
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.
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.
Constraining New Physics with h→VV Tomography
The application of quantum information methods to high energy physics has recently been gaining traction. In particular, reconstructing density matrices and measuring entanglement have been investigated for top quark decays and Higgs decays. This paper will further investigate the utility of density matrices for Higgs decays to vector bosons. Imprints of new physics, whether CP-even or CP-odd, in h→VV will generally change the spin density matrix, and so the tomographic reconstruction of the density matrix can constrain, or potentially detect, such new physics. New physics, expressed in the language of the Standard Model effective field theory, is analyzed in this framework of quantum tomography. Prospects for h→WW are good due to the fully chiral coupling of the W boson to fermions, while h→ZZ requires around an order of magnitude more events to reach comparable sensitivity.
Quantum detection of CP violation in the ttˉ system: tomography
We develop a quantum-tomographic framework for determining whether possible CP-odd effects in ttˉ events originate in production, in decay, or in both. In the narrow-width approximation, the process I→ttˉ→bℓ+νbˉℓ−νˉ factorises into a production density matrix and top and antitop decay density matrices. We extend the standard tomography procedure to a general anomalous Wtb vertex and derive the corresponding angular distributions. Polar-angle distributions retain their usual tomographic form, up to modifications of the spin-analysing powers, and can therefore be used to reconstruct the production density matrix and test its CP properties. By contrast, dedicated azimuthal observables involving the b--lepton decay planes contain characteristic sine modulations that provide linear probes of possible new CP-violating interactions in the decay vertex. Combining the two classes of observables gives a systematic strategy for separating sources of CP violation in production and in decay. We illustrate the resulting angular signatures for representative ttˉ production scenarios at hadron and lepton colliders.
Quantum detection of CP violation in the ttˉ system: production
We investigate how possible new CP-violating top-quark interactions are encoded in the quantum state of a produced ttˉ pair. We derive analytic expressions for the production density matrix in several benchmark channels relevant to hadron, lepton and photon colliders. In a common spin basis, we identify two characteristic CP-odd structures in the Fano--Bloch decomposition: a difference between the top and antitop polarisation vectors and an antisymmetric component of the spin-correlation matrix. We construct observables that directly probe these structures and study how quantum information measures, including discord, concurrence, magic and trace distance, respond to CP-even and CP-odd SMEFT contributions. Finally, using current measurements and future collider projections, we assess the sensitivity of these observables to possible new sources of CP violation in top-quark production. This establishes the production-level framework whose experimental reconstruction is developed in a companion paper.
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.
A bstract We study the quantum properties of top quark pairs in lepton colliders with unpolarised beams, including spin correlations, entanglement, and violation of Bell inequalities. We present analytical results in the SM and in the SMEFT and discuss several practical aspects, like the choice of quantisation axes and tt t t ¯ threshold effects. We also note a correspondence between parity symmetry and entanglement. We find that quantum observables exhibit a rich phenomenology in the SM, and can also provide additional leverage in detecting new physics residing at higher scales.