MUON | Lattice determination of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment

Summary
"On 4/7/2021 the Fermilab announced the result of a two decade long investigation to determine the magnetic moment of the muon. By tradition, data-driven theoretical methods have been used for 50 years to calculate this magnetic moment. But, interestingly, in the last 20 years growing discrepancies were noted between theoretical and experimental findings. In the literature, the result obtained by using the data-driven method is called the “consensus value"" - and it is 4.2 sigma away from the combined experimental result. This 4.2-sigma discrepancy was interpreted by many physicists as a sign for new physics with a new and unknown force - and hundreds of papers appeared in the last few months to explain the 4.2-sigma tension by some form of new physics. For theoreticians this is an extremely exciting situation because even better experimental results are expected in the next 1 to 5 years, which might further increase the tension between experiment and theory. I propose a completely different and much more fundamental theoretical approach: lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Within this new approach I can reach better accuracies than those of the traditional approach. Furthermore, my innovative approach uses far less experimental inputs, reducing the effects of uncertainties associated with input. The objective of the present application is to show unambiguously that either (a) there is no new force, that the experimental results are actually in agreement with the Standard Model of particle physics or (b) confirm the existence of new physics with a high confidence level. To that end a very large-scale lattice Quantum Chromodynamics approach will be applied using supercomputers to yield the muon's magnetic moment with the unprecedented precision of 10(up-10) level of accuracy. The success of this project will open a new window for high precision lattice Quantum Chromodynamics and put a final word on the two decade old mystery around the muon's magnetic moment."
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101054515
Start date: 01-10-2023
End date: 30-09-2028
Total budget - Public funding: 2 085 625,00 Euro - 2 085 625,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

"On 4/7/2021 the Fermilab announced the result of a two decade long investigation to determine the magnetic moment of the muon. By tradition, data-driven theoretical methods have been used for 50 years to calculate this magnetic moment. But, interestingly, in the last 20 years growing discrepancies were noted between theoretical and experimental findings. In the literature, the result obtained by using the data-driven method is called the “consensus value"" - and it is 4.2 sigma away from the combined experimental result. This 4.2-sigma discrepancy was interpreted by many physicists as a sign for new physics with a new and unknown force - and hundreds of papers appeared in the last few months to explain the 4.2-sigma tension by some form of new physics. For theoreticians this is an extremely exciting situation because even better experimental results are expected in the next 1 to 5 years, which might further increase the tension between experiment and theory. I propose a completely different and much more fundamental theoretical approach: lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Within this new approach I can reach better accuracies than those of the traditional approach. Furthermore, my innovative approach uses far less experimental inputs, reducing the effects of uncertainties associated with input. The objective of the present application is to show unambiguously that either (a) there is no new force, that the experimental results are actually in agreement with the Standard Model of particle physics or (b) confirm the existence of new physics with a high confidence level. To that end a very large-scale lattice Quantum Chromodynamics approach will be applied using supercomputers to yield the muon's magnetic moment with the unprecedented precision of 10(up-10) level of accuracy. The success of this project will open a new window for high precision lattice Quantum Chromodynamics and put a final word on the two decade old mystery around the muon's magnetic moment."

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2021-ADG

Update Date

09-02-2023
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2021-ADG ERC ADVANCED GRANTS
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2021-ADG ERC ADVANCED GRANTS