# Hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment from four-flavor lattice QCD

## TL;DR

This paper computes the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment using four-flavor lattice QCD with physical pion mass, providing results consistent with previous lattice and experimental data.

## Contribution

First four-flavor lattice QCD calculation of the connected hadronic vacuum polarization contribution at physical pion mass with multiple lattice spacings.

## Key findings

- Calculated $a_^{ll}$ in agreement with other lattice results.
- Final total contribution $a_^{
m HVP,LO} = 699(15)$, consistent with phenomenology.
- Result is 1.3 sigma below the no-new-physics value.

## Abstract

We calculate the contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment hadronic vacuum polarization from {the} connected diagrams of up and down quarks, omitting electromagnetism. We employ QCD gauge-field configurations with dynamical $u$, $d$, $s$, and $c$ quarks and the physical pion mass, and analyze five ensembles with lattice spacings ranging from $a \approx 0.06$ to~0.15~fm. The up- and down-quark masses in our simulations have equal masses $m_l$. We obtain, in this world where all pions have the mass of the $\pi^0$, $10^{10} a_\mu^{ll}({\rm conn.}) = 637.8\,(8.8)$, in agreement with independent lattice-QCD calculations. We then combine this value with published lattice-QCD results for the connected contributions from strange, charm, and bottom quarks, and an estimate of the uncertainty due to the fact that our calculation does not include strong-isospin breaking, electromagnetism, or contributions from quark-disconnected diagrams. Our final result for the total $\mathcal{O}(\alpha^2)$ hadronic vacuum polarization to the muon's anomalous magnetic moment is~$10^{10}a_\mu^{\rm HVP,LO} = 699(15)_{u,d}(1)_{s,c,b}$, where the errors are from the light-quark and heavy-quark contributions, respectively. Our result agrees with both {\it ab-initio} lattice-QCD calculations and phenomenological determinations from experimental $e^+e^-$-scattering data. It is $1.3\sigma$ below the "no new physics" value of the hadronic-vacuum-polarization contribution inferred from combining the BNL E821 measurement of $a_\mu$ with theoretical calculations of the other contributions.