Impossibility of obtaining a CP-violating Euler–Heisenberg effective theory from a viable modification of QED

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we examine the CP-violating term of the Euler–Heisenberg action. We focus in the aspects related with the generation of such a term from a QED-like model in terms of the effective action approach. In particular, we show that the generation of the CP-violating term is closely related with both of vector and axial fermionic bilinears. Although, these anomalous models are not a viable extension of QED, we argue that the CP-violating term in the photon sector is obtained only from this class of models, and not from any fundamental field theory.