Electron-muon scattering: the MUonE experiment and g-2 of the muon

• Grant number: 24/22412-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Diogo Rodrigues Boito
• Grantee: Marcos Paulo Attanasio Filho
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06756-6 - Testing the standard model: precision QCD and muon g-2, AP.JP2

Abstract

One of the most prominent observables in ParticlePhysics is the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, known as g(mu)-2, which provides a stringent indirect test of the Standard Model (SM). The SM prediction for g(mu)-2 depends crucially on the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) contribution. At present, the latest experimental result from the Muon g-2 collaboration, published in 2023, shows a 5-sigma discrepancy with the SM determination based on the the data-driven assessment of the HVP. Lattice results for the HVP, on the other hand, lead to g(mu)-2 determinations in agreement with experiment. These discrepancies must be well understood before g(mu)-2 can be considered a reliable evidenceof physics beyond the SM. The recently proposed CERN-MUonE experiment aims at obtaining the HVP contribution to g-2 in acompletely different way, studying the elastic electron-muon scattering in order to extract the HVP in the Euclidean domain. In this project, the student will study the electron-muon scattering with the goal of establishing its relation with the determination of the HVP contribution to g ¿ 2 of the muon.