Proposal to Search for the CP Violating Electromagnetic Vacuum Angle at the Event Horizon Telescope

Abstract

We examine the possibility that evidence for a non-zero value of the CP violating $ \frac{e^2 }{32\pi^2}\theta_{EM} \int d^4 x {\vec E}\cdot {\vec B}$ coupling might be extracted from Event Horizon Telescope observations of the black holes SgA* and M87*. The Fischler-Kundu\cite{FK} effect predicts a universal Hall current in the relaxation of charge falling onto the black hole horizon. We argue that this leads to a non-zero value of a certain CP-violating observable ${\cal C}$, defined below. The effect can be masked by parity violating plasma currents. In particular, evidence for polarization flips \cite{flip} in the signals from M87* indicate strong plasma effects in the data. We suggest that time averaging the data over periods including the flip might leave over a residual that would be an indicator of the FK signal. In addition, similarities in the polarization patterns between the two very different black holes, and a part of the signal that is uniform in frequency, might enable us to distinguish the universal topological signal from source and frequency dependent plasma effects. Current data does not appear to be sufficient to perform such a test.