The photon polarization tensor is the central building block of an effective theory description of photon propagation in the quantum vacuum. It accounts for the vacuum fluctuations of the underlying theory, and in the presence of external electromagnetic fields, gives rise to such striking phenomena as vacuum birefringence and dichroism. Standard approximations of the polarization tensor are often restricted to on-the-light-cone dynamics in homogeneous electromagnetic fields, and are limited to certain momentum regimes only. We devise two different strategies to go beyond these limitations: First, we aim at obtaining novel analytical insights into the photon polarization tensor for homogeneous fields, while retaining its full momentum dependence. Second, we employ wordline numerical methods to surpass the constant-field limit.
Vacuum polarization is a part of the initial-state radiative correction for the cross-section of $e^+e^-$ annihilation processes. In the energy region in the vicinity of narrow resonances $J/ψ$ and $ψ(3686)$, the vacuum polarization contribution from the resonant component has a significant effect on the line-shape of the lepton pair production cross-section. This paper discusses some basic concepts and describes an analytical calculation of the cross-section of $e^+e^-\toγ^\ast/ψ\toμ^+μ^-$ considering the single and double vacuum polarization effect of the virtual photon propagator. Moreover,…
We report on recent results obtained by analyzing axion--photon mixing in the framework of quantum field theory. We obtain corrections to the oscillation formulae and we reveal a new effect of the vacuum polarization due to the non-zero value of the vacuum energy for the component of the photon polarization mixed with the axion. The study of axion--photon mixing in curved space is also presented. Numerical analysis show that some quantum field theory effect of axion--photon mixing, in principle, could be detected experimentally.
A hadronic vacuum polarization correction to the photon propagator is found by using the Dubnicka-Meshcheryakov parameterization of the pion electromagnetic form factor and new experimental data on the $e^+e^-$ hadrons annihilation cross section. Then, the contribution from the hadronic vacuum polarization to the muon anomalous magnetic moment and the Lamb shift in muonic atoms are calculated.
The shift of atomic energy levels due to hadronic vacuum polarization is evaluated in a semiempirical way for hydrogenlike ions and for muonic hydrogen. A parametric hadronic polarization function obtained from experimental cross sections of $e^-e^+$ annihilation into hadrons is applied to derive an effective relativistic Uehling potential. The energy corrections originating from hadronic vacuum polarization are calculated for low-lying levels using analytical Dirac-Coulomb wave functions, as well as bound wave functions accounting for the finite nuclear size. Closed formulas for the hadronic …
Some short-distance properties of the fourth-rank hadronic vacuum polarization tensor are re-examined.Their consequences are critically discussed in the context of the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.
The renormalization group relations for the higher-order hadronic vacuum polarization function perturbative expansion coefficients are studied. The folded recurrent and unfolded explicit forms of such relations are obtained. The explicit expression for the coefficients, which incorporate the contributions of the $π^{2}$-terms in the perturbative expansion of the R-ratio of electron-positron annihilation into hadrons, is derived at an arbitrary loop level. The obtained results can be employed as an independent crosscheck of the higher-order perturbative calculations of the hadronic vacuum polar…
We report on the computation of the light quark vacuum polarization with 2+1+1 flavors of H ISQ fermions at the physical point and its contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Three ensembles, generated by the MILC collaboration, are used to take the continuum limit. We compare our result with recent ones in the literature.
We present simple analytic expressions to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon $g$-2 in the space-like region up to next-to-next-to-leading order. These results can be employed in lattice QCD calculations of this contribution as well as in space-like determinations based on scattering data, like that expected from the proposed MUonE experiment at CERN.
