GRAVITY AND CP VIOLATION

The non-conservation of CP symmetry in the decay of neutral K mesons w as discovered almost three decades ago. The origin of this unique phen omenon is still not well understood. There have been attempts to link it with energy splitting of the K and (K) over bar(0) in the earth's g ravitational field. In this essay we examine these attempts critically . A more natural way in which a gravitational field can couple asymmet rically to the K-(K) over bar(0) system is through torsion, which coup ling to isospin can, in addition to parity violation, also give rise t o a C violation. The magnitude of this effect is estimated in the vici nity of a kaon and found to give a CP-violating parameter of the right value. Moreover, it is predicted that the CP violating parameter for the new system B-0-(B) over bar(0) is much smaller similar to 10(-6). Implications for baryogenesis in the early universe is also studied. I n this paper we work not with the Newtonian gravitational constant G b ut with a torsion coupling constant, which is energy-dependent and can be related to the Fermi weak interaction constant.