Precise determination of the leading hadronic contribution to the muon g-2

One of the most prominent quantities in the pursuit of new physics beyond the  Standard Model (SM) is the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (muon g–2). Currently there is an intriguing three-standard-deviation difference between the best measurement of g–2 for the muon and the SM prediction, where the theoretical uncertainty is dominated by hadronic contributions. Ongoing efforts at Fermilab and J–PARC experiments plan to reduce the experimental uncertainty by a factor of four, and a comparable improvement of the SM theory precision is essential in order to fully exploit the expected greater precision of experimental results. The main aim of this project will be to improve precision in the current lattice QCD estimate of the leading hadronic contribution to the muon g-2, by controlling the uncertainties related to the fact that the simulated system is confined to a finite space-time box. This will be achieved through a state-of-the lattice determination of the pion form factor using the sophisticated noise-reduction technology pioneered by the Dublin group. Secondment and frequent visits to LMU Munich are envisaged.