We determine the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the $α^2_{\mathrm{QED}}$ hadronic vacuum polarization diagram using full lattice QCD and including $u/d$ quarks with physical masses for the first time. We use gluon field configurations that include $u$, $d$, $s$ and $c$ quarks in the sea at multiple values of the lattice spacing, multiple $u/d$ masses and multiple volumes that allow us to include an analysis of finite-volume effects. We obtain a result for $a_μ^{\mathrm{HVP,LO}}$ of $667(6)(12)$, where the first error is from the lattice calculation and the second includes systematic errors from missing QED and isospin-breaking effects and from quark-line disconnected diagrams. Our result implies a discrepancy between the experimental determination of $a_μ$ and the Standard Model of 3$σ$.
We propose a method to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization function on the lattice at continuous values of photon momenta bridging between the spacelike and timelike regions. We provide two independent demonstrations to show that this method leads to the desired hadronic vacuum polarization function in Minkowski spacetime. We show with the example of the leading-order QCD correction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment that this approach can provide a valuable alternative method for calculations of physical quantities where the hadronic vacuum polarization function enters.
The dispersive approach to quantum chromodynamics is applied to the study of the hadronic vacuum polarization function and associated quantities. This approach merges the intrinsically nonperturbative constraints, which originate in the kinematic restrictions on the respective physical processes, with corresponding perturbative input. The obtained hadronic vacuum polarization function agrees with pertinent lattice simulation data. The evaluated hadronic contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment and to the shift of the electromagnetic fine structure constant conform with recent assess…
The dispersive approach to QCD is briefly overviewed and its application to the assessment of hadronic contributions to electroweak observables is discussed.
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.
The complete set of relations, which mutually express the spacelike and timelike kernel functions for the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment $a^{\text{HVP}}_μ$ in terms of each other, is obtained. By making use of the derived relations the explicit expression for the next-to-leading order spacelike kernel function, which enters the representation for $a^{\text{HVP}}_μ$ involving the hadronic vacuum polarization function, is obtained. The corresponding next-to-leading order spacelike kernel function, which appears in the representation for $a^{\text{…
I suggest a new approach to the determination of the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ in lattice QCD. It is based on properties of the Mellin transform of the hadronic spectral function and their relation to the HVP self energy in the Euclidean. I show how $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ is very well approximated by a few moments associated to this Mellin transform and how these moments can be evaluated in lattice QCD, providing thus a series of tests when compared with the corresponding determinations using experimental data.
The gradient-flow operator product expansion for QCD current correlators including operators up to mass dimension four is calculated through NNLO. This paves an alternative way for efficient lattice evaluations of hadronic vacuum polarization functions. In addition, flow-time evolution equations for flowed composite operators are derived. Their explicit form for the non-trivial dimension-four operators of QCD is given through order $α_s^3$.
We present steps towards the computation of the leading-order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment on RBC/UKQCD physical point DWF ensembles. We discuss several methods for controlling and reducing uncertainties associated to the determination of the HVP form factor.
The leading hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is given by a weighted integral over euclidean momentum of the hadronic vacuum polarization. This integral is dominated by momenta of order the muon mass. Since the finite volume in lattice QCD makes it difficult to compute the vacuum polarization at a large number of low momenta with high statistics (combined with the fact that one cannot compute it at zero momentum), a parametrization of the vacuum polarization is required to extrapolate the data. A much used functional form is based on vector meson dominance, which intr…
We perform a lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic light-by-light scattering amplitude in a broad kinematical range. At forward kinematics, the results are compared to a phenomenological analysis based on dispersive sum rules for light-by-light scattering. The size of the pion pole contribution is investigated for momenta of typical hadronic size. The presented numerical methods can be used to compute the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Our calculations are carried out in two-flavor QCD with the pion mass in the range of 270 to 450MeV, and c…
After a brief self-contained introduction to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, (g-2), we review the status of lattice calculations of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution and present first results from lattice QCD for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution. The signal for the latter is consistent with model calculations. While encouraging, the statistical error is large and systematic errors are mostly uncontrolled. The method is applied first to pure QED as a check.
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 and test a new method to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization function in lattice simulations. This can then be used, e.g., to determine the leading hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The method is based on computing susceptibilities with respect to external electromagnetic plane wave fields and allows for a precision determination of both the connected and the disconnected contributions to the vacuum polarization. We demonstrate that the statistical errors obtained with our method are much smaller than those quoted in previous lattice studies, p…
For reliable comparison of the standard model prediction to the muon g-2 with its experimental value, the hadronic light-by-light scattering (HLbL) contribution must be calculated by lattice QCD simulation. HLbL contribution has many types of disconnected-type diagrams. Here, we start with recalling the point that must be taken care of in every method to calculate them by lattice QCD, and present one concrete method called nonperturbative QED method.
We report preliminary results for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of Möbius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_μ^{\rm HLbL} = (7.41\pm6.33)\times 10^{-10}$
We present a determination of the QCD coupling constant, $α_s$, obtained by fitting lattice results for the flavour $ud$ hadronic vacuum polarisation function to continuum perturbation theory. We use $n_f=2+1$ flavours of Domain Wall fermions generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaboration and three lattice spacings $a^{-1}=1.79,\, 2.38$ and $3.15\ \text{GeV}$. Several sources of potential systematic error are identified and dealt with. After fitting and removing expected leading cut-off effects, we find for the five-flavour $\overline{\text{MS}}$ coupling the value $α_s(M_Z)=0.1181(27)^{+8}_{-22}$, …
We compute the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon $g-2$ from the up, down, and strange-quark sector directly using lattice QCD. Our calculation features evaluations of all possible Wick-contractions of the relevant hadronic four-point function and incorporates several different pion masses, volumes, and lattice-spacings. We obtain a value of $a_μ^{\text{Hlbl}} = 106.8(14.7) \times 10^{-11}$ (adding statistical and systematic errors in quadrature), which is consistent with current phenomenological estimates and a previous lattice determination. It now appears conclusive…
The nonperturbative approach to soft high-energy hadron-hadron scattering, based on the analytic continuation of Wilson-loop correlation functions from Euclidean to Minkowskian theory, allows to investigate the asymptotic energy dependence of hadron-hadron total cross sections in lattice QCD. In this paper we will show, using best fits of the lattice data with proper functional forms satisfying unitarity and other physical constraints, how indications emerge in favor of a universal asymptotic high-energy behavior of the kind B log^2 s for hadronic total cross sections.
The form factor that yields the light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is computed in lattice QCD+QED and QED. A non-perturbative treatment of QED is used and is checked against perturbation theory. The hadronic contribution is calculated for unphysical quark and muon masses, and only the diagram with a single quark loop is computed. Statistically significant signals are obtained. Initial results appear promising, and the prospect for a complete calculation with physical masses and controlled errors is discussed.
We report the first lattice QCD calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization disconnected contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment at physical pion mass. The calculation uses a refined noise-reduction technique which enabled the control of statistical uncertainties at the desired level with modest computational effort. Measurements were performed on the $48^3 \times 96$ physical-pion-mass lattice generated by the RBC and UKQCD collaborations. We find $a_μ^{\rm HVP~(LO)~DISC} = -9.6(3.3)(2.3)\times 10^{-10}$, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic.
We show that the matrix element of a local quark-gluon operator in the photon state, $<γ(kλ)|\hat O| γ(kλ)>$, can be calculated in lattice QCD. The result is generalized to other quantities involving space-like photons, including the transition form factor $γγ^*\to π^0$ and the virtual-photon-nucleon Compton amplitude $<γ^*N |γ^*N>$ which can be used to define the generalized Drell-Hearn-Gerasimov and Bjorken sum rules.
We calculate the hadronic coupling constants $g_{NNπ}$ and $g_{ρππ}$ in QCD, including dynamical quarks in the framework of staggered fermions in the lattice approach. For the nucleon--pion coupling we obtain $g_{NNπ} = 13.8 \pm 5.8$, to be compared with the experimental value $13.13 \pm 0.07$. The $ρππ$ coupling has been analysed for two different sets of operators with the averaged result $g_{ρππ} = 4.2 \pm 1.9$ which is to be compared with the experimental value $6.06 \pm 0.01$.
The hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon g-2 is the most troublesome component of its theoretical prediction; (1) it cannot be determined from the other measurable quantities, (2) the dimensional argument and the estimation based on hadronic models imply that the magnitude of this contribution may be comparable to the discrepancy between the standard model prediction and the experimental value. The direct approach to evaluate the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution requires the evaluation of the correlation function of {\it four} hadronic electromagnetic curr…
The experimental value of g-2 of the muon is larger by $4.2 σ$ than the Standard Model prediction based on the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution (HVP) determined from the measured R-ratio, $σ(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons})/σ(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \!μ^+ μ^-)$; the HVP calculated in lattice QCD also significantly exceeds the measured R-ratio value. We show here that these discrepancies can be explained by an undetected contribution to $e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons}$ as could arise from production of neutral, long-lived hadrons which have not previously been identi…
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, $g_μ-2$, is one of the most promising observables to identify hints for physics beyond the Standard Model. QCD contributions are currently responsible for the largest fraction of the overall theoretical uncertainty in $g_μ-2$. The possibility to determine these hadronic contributions from first principles through lattice QCD calculations has triggered a number of recent studies. Recent proposals to improve the accuracy of lattice determinations are reported. We present an update of our studies of the leading-order hadronic contribution to $g_μ-2$ with…
In order to reduce the current hadronic uncertainties in the theory prediction for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, lattice calculations need to reach sub-percent accuracy on the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution. This requires the inclusion of $\mathcal{O}(α)$ electromagnetic corrections. The inclusion of electromagnetic interactions in lattice simulations is known to generate potentially large finite-size effects suppressed only by powers of the inverse spatial extent. In this paper we derive an analytic expression for the $\mathrm{QED}_{\mathrm{L}}$ finite-volume correctio…
We report the first result for the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment with all errors systematically controlled. Several ensembles using 2+1 flavors of physical mass Möbius domain-wall fermions, generated by the RBC/UKQCD collaborations, are employed to take the continuum and infinite volume limits of finite volume lattice QED+QCD. We find $a_μ^{\rm HLbL} = 7.87(3.06)_\text{stat}(1.77)_\text{sys}\times 10^{-10}$. Our value is consistent with previous model results and leaves little room for this notoriously difficult hadronic contribution to e…
I discuss recent results of the NPLQCD Collaboration regarding the calculation of hadronic interactions with lattice QCD. A particular emphasis will be spent on pi-pi scattering and other meson interactions.
I discuss how masses and widths of hadron resonances are extracted from lattice QCD. Recent lattice results on the light, strange and charm meson resonances are reviewed. Their properties are revealed by simulating the corresponding scattering channels pi-pi, K-pi and D-pi on the lattice and extracting the scattering phase shifts. In particular we address the resonances rho, D0*(2400), D1(2430), K*, kappa and K0*(1430).
We will show how a universal and Froissart-like (i.e., of the kind "B log^2 s") hadron-hadron total cross section can emerge in QCD asymptotically at high energy, finding indications for this behavior from the lattice. The functional integral approach provides the natural setting for achieving this result, since it encodes the energy dependence of hadronic scattering amplitudes in a single elementary object, i.e., a proper correlation function of two Wilson loops.
It is shown that with a precise determination of a few derivatives of the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) self-energy function $Π(Q^2)$ at $Q^2=0$, from lattice QCD (LQCD) or from a dedicated low-energy experiment, one can obtain an evaluation of the lowest order HVP contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon $a_μ^{\rm HVP}$ with an accuracy comparable to the one reached using the $e^+ e^-$ annihilation cross-section into hadrons. The technique of Mellin-Barnes approximants (MBa) that we propose is illustrated in detail with the example of the two loop vacuum polarization fun…
ALEPH/OPAL data on the V-A spectral functions from hadronic tau decays are used in connection with a set of Laplace transform sum rules (LSR) for fixing the size of the QCD vacuum condensates up to dimension 18. Our results favour the ones from large-N_c QCD within the Minimal Hadronic Approximation (MHA) and show a violation of about a factor 2-5 of the vacuum saturation estimate of the dimension-six to -ten condensates. We scrutinize the different determinations of the QCD vacuum condensates using tau-decays data. After revisiting some of the existing results, we present coherent values of t…
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 review the potential method in lattice QCD, which has recently been proposed to extract nucleon-nucleon interactions via numerical simulations. We focus on the methodology of this approach by emphasizing the strategy of the potential method, the theoretical foundation behind it, and special numerical techniques. We compare the potential method with the standard finite volume method in lattice QCD, in order to make pros and cons of the approach clear. We also present several numerical results for the nucleon-nucleon potentials.
We present two examples of applications of the analytic continuation method for computing the hadronic vacuum polarization function in space- and time-like momentum regions. These examples are the Adler function and the leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. We comment on the feasibility of the analytic continuation method and provide an outlook for possible further applications.
We investigate finite-volume effects in the hadronic vacuum polarization, with an eye toward the corresponding systematic error in the muon anomalous magnetic moment. While it is well known that leading-order chiral perturbation theory does not provide a good description of the hadronic vacuum polarization, it turns out that it gives a much better representation of finite-volume effects. Indications are that finite-volume effects cannot be ignored when the aim is a few percent level accuracy for the hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment, even when $m_πL \sim 4$ and $m_π\s…
We report on calculations of the hadronic coupling constants $g_{ρππ}$ and $g_{nnπ}$ based on lattice QCD with four flavors of dynamical staggered fermions. By computing 2--point and 3--point Green's functions we have been able to determine these coupling constants ab initio from QCD; the results are compatible with the experimental values.
After discussing the relevance of a first principles theory-prediction of the hadronic vacuum polarisation for Standard Model tests, the theoretical challenges for its computation in lattice QCD are reviewed. New ideas that will potentially improve the quality of lattice simulations will be introduced and the status of ongoing simulations will be presented briefly.
The leading-order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is given by a weighted integral over the subtracted hadronic vacuum polarization. This integral is dominated by euclidean momenta of order the muon mass, i.e., momenta not accessible on current lattice volumes with periodic boundary conditions. Twisted boundary conditions can in principle help in accessing momenta of any size even in a finite volume, but their use leads to a modification of the Ward-Takahashi identity that normally guarantees transversality of the vacuum polarization. As a result, the vacuum polariza…
The MUonE proposal at the CERN SPS consists in extracting the value of the hadronic vacuum polarization self-energy function (HVP) from its contribution to the differential cross-section of elastic muon-electron scattering. The HVP contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment can then be obtained from a weighted integral of the measured HVP self-energy function. This, however, requires a knowledge of the HVP function in its full integration domain. This paper discusses a procedure to reconstruct the HVP function in the regions not directly accessible to measurement. The method is based o…
A large body of evidence from lattice calculations indicates that instantons play a major role in the physics of light hadrons. This evidence is summarized, and recent results concerning the instanton content of the SU(3) vacuum, instanton contributions to the static potential, and a new class of instanton solutions at finite temperature are reviewed.
The leading-order hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is given by a weighted integral over the subtracted hadronic vacuum polarization. This integral is dominated by euclidean momenta of order the muon mass which are not available on current lattice volumes with periodic boundary conditions. Twisted boundary conditions can in principle help access momenta of any size even in a finite volume. We investigate the implementation of twisted boundary conditions both numerically (using all-mode averaging for improved statistics) and analytically, and present our initial…
We report progress on calculating the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the disconnected hadronic diagrams with light and strange quarks and the valence QED contribution to the connected diagrams. The lattice QCD calculations use the highly-improved staggered quark (HISQ) formulation. The gauge configurations were generated by the MILC Collaboration with four flavors of HISQ sea quarks with physical sea-quark masses.
We present an overview of recent efforts to calculate the interactions among hadrons using lattice QCD. After outlining the techniques that are used to extract scattering parameters, we detail the latest calculations of meson-meson scattering, baryon-baryon scattering and multi-meson systems obtained with domain-wall valence quarks on the staggered MILC lattices by the NPLQCD collaboration. Estimates of the computational resources required to achieve precision results in the baryon sector are presented.
An adiabatic approximation is used to derive the binding potential between two heavy-light mesons in quenched SU(2)-colour lattice QCD. Analysis of the meson-meson system shows that the potential is attractive at short- and medium-range. The numerical data is consistent with the Yukawa model of pion exchange
There are generally two types of Wick contractions in lattice QCD calculations of a correlation function --- connected and disconnected ones. The disconnected contribution is difficult to calculate and noisy, thus it is often neglected. In the context of studying tetraquarks, hadronic molecules and meson-meson scattering, we show that whenever there are both connected and singly disconnected contractions, the singly disconnected part gives the leading order contribution, and thus should never be neglected. As an explicit example, we show that information about the scalar mesons sigma, f0(980),…
We discuss leading isospin breaking effects in the hadronic vacuum polarisation required for the investigation of the hadronic contribution to $(g-2)_μ$. The calculation proceeds by expanding the relevant correlation functions around the isosymmetric limit. Isosymmetric observables are evaluated on gauge ensembles with $N_{f}=2+1$, $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions and open boundary conditions generated by the CLS effort. Particular emphasis is placed on the relevant quark-disconnected diagrams required for a complete treatment of leading isospin breaking effects in the valence quark sector. We …
We study a representation of the hadronic vacuum polarization based on the time-momentum representation of the vector correlator. This representation suggests a way to compute the hadronic vacuum polarization and the associated Adler function for any value of virtuality, irrespective of the flavor structure of the current. We present results on both of these phenomenologically important functions, derived from local-conserved two-point lattice vector correlation functions, computed on a subset of light two-flavor ensembles made available to us through the CLS effort.
We present results for the leading hadronic contribution to the muon $g-2$ from configurations with 2+1+1 flavors of HISQ quarks. The ensembles have been generated by the MILC collaboration at three lattice spacings. Using the time-momentum representation of the electromagnetic current correlator, we calculate the finite volume effects up to next-to-next-to-leading-order in Chiral Perturbation Theory.
We calculate the leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment using twisted mass lattice QCD. The pion masses range from 330 MeV to 650 MeV. We use two lattice spacings, a=0.079 fm and 0.063 fm, to study lattice artifacts. Finite-size effects are studied for two values of the pion mass, and we calculate the disconnected contributions for four ensembles. Particular attention is paid to the dominant contributions of the vector mesons, both phenomenologically and from our lattice calculation.
Isospin-breaking corrections to the hadron vacuum polarization component of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon are needed to ensure the theoretical precision of $g_μ-2$ is below the experimental precision. We describe the status of our work calculating, using lattice QCD, the QED correction to the light and strange connected hadronic vacuum polarization in a Dashen scheme. We report results using physical $N_f=2+1+1$ HISQ ensembles at three lattice spacings and three heavier-than-light valence quark masses.
QCD spectral functions of hadrons in the pseudo-scalar and vector channels are extracted from lattice Monte Carlo data of the imaginary time Green's functions. The maximum entropy method works well for this purpose, and the resonance and continuum structures in the spectra are obtained in addition to the ground state peaks.
Neutral-meson mixing is loop suppressed in the Standard Model, leading to the possibility of enhanced sensitivity to new physics. The uncertainty in Standard Model predictions for $B$-meson oscillation frequencies is dominated by theoretical uncertainties within the short-distance $B$-meson hadronic matrix elements, motivating the need for improved precision. In $D$-meson mixing, the Standard Model short-distance contributions are further suppressed by the GIM mechanism allowing for the possibility of large new physics enhancements. A first-principle determination of the $D$-meson short-distan…
The quark-connected leading-order hadronic contributions to the running of the electromagnetic fine structure constant, $α_{\rm QED}$, and the weak mixing angle, $θ_W$, are determined by a four-flavour lattice QCD computation with twisted mass fermions. Full agreement of the results with a phenomenological analysis is observed with an even comparable statistical uncertainty. We show that the uncertainty of the lattice calculation is dominated by systematic effects which then leads to significantly larger errors than obtained by the phenomenological analysis.
