Probing the Standard Model to eleven digits with the muon magnetic moment

by Dr Laurent Lellouch

Monday Apr 20, 2026, 12:00 PM → 2:00 PM Europe/Madrid

The Muon g−2 Experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has recently concluded its six-year data-taking campaign, delivering a measurement of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment with an unprecedented precision of 0.127 parts per billion — one of the most stringent tests of the Standard Model ever performed. However, to fully leverage this experimental tour de force in the search for new fundamental physics demands a theoretical prediction with comparable accuracy.

In this talk, I will survey the current experimental and theoretical landscape of the muon anomalous magnetic moment before presenting a first-principles calculation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution — the largest source of uncertainty in the Standard Model prediction. When combined with all other Standard Model contributions, the result of this calculation yields a prediction that agrees with experiment within one standard deviation, confirming the Standard Model to eleven significant digits and sharpening constraints on physics beyond it.