The anomalous magnetic moment of the electron

The value of the electron's magnetic moment is a fundamental quantity in physics. Its deviation from the value expected from Dirac theory has given enormous impetus to the field of quantum theory and especially to quantum electrodynamics (QED) as the relativistic quantum field theory of electrodynamics. In fact, the measured values both for free and for bound electrons are explained by corresponding QED calculations on the part per trillion and part per billion level of accuracy, respectively. This agreement is amongst the best known in physics today. In turn, it allows highly precise determinations of related fundamental constants like the fine structure constant α or the electron mass. The present article discusses the application of the continuous Stern–Gerlach effect to the precise measurement of magnetic moments, especially of the electron bound in highly charged ions and possible tests of calculations in the framework of QED of bound states. Also, a test of QED in a more general approach by the comparison of values for the fine structure constant derived from different measurements, will be discussed.     

A sixth order contribution to the electron anomalous magnetic moment

We evaluate analytically the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron due to a set of sixth order graphs with two crossed photon lines. The dimensional regularization is used to parametrize the spurious infrared divergences.     

On the interpretation of the electron anomalous magnetic moment

Guided by a Compton-sized model, we demonstrate that: (a) the magnetic self-energy of the electron, as estimated initially by Rasetti and Fermi, can be directly related to both the sign and the magnitude of the electron anomalous magnetic moment; and (b) the classical expression for the magnetic self-energy of the electron exhibits the same characteristic logarithmic divergence that occurs in QED. This electron model quantitatively reproduces the spin, magnetic moment, and gyromagnetic ratio of the electron, correct to first order in = e² /c. It also relates the quantum-mechanical spin projection angle to the vanishing of the electric quadrupole moment, and it is capable of reproducing point-like scattering behavior.     

Contributions to the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment from a hidden sector

The measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon provides a stringent test of the standard model and of any physics that lies beyond it. There is currently a deviation of 3.1σ between the standard model prediction for the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment and its experimental value. We calculate the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment in theories where the muon couples to a particle in a hidden sector (that is, uncharged under the standard model) and a connector (which has nontrivial standard model gauge and hidden sector quantum numbers).     

The doubling of the anomalous magnetic moment of electron in a very strong constant homogeneous electric field

Calculated by the author previously [8], the anomalous magnetic moment (AMM) of the electron in an intense constant electric field changes nonmonotonically as the field increases, passing through a minimum and tending to the doubled Schwinger value for very strong fields. In the present paper, it is supposed that the AMM is related by the Lande factor to the angular momentum of a virtual electron accompanied by a virtual photon. This factor changes its effective value because of the influence of the external field on the motion of the virtual electron and its self-action. With increase of the electric field strength, the virtual electron can successively occupy the excited states l = 1, j = 1/2 and l = 1, j = 3/2 in addition to the original state with the orbital angular momentum l = 0 and the total angular momentum j = 1/2. The first of these excited states decreases the AMM and the second increases and doubles it if only this state is occupied for a very strong field. The latter condition is equivalent to the alignment of the spin and the orbital angular momentum of the electron along the field, while the total angular momentum of the entire system of the virtual electron and the virtual photon remains equal to 1/2.     

The anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in hydrogenlike ions

The precise determination of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron bound in hydrogen-like ions allows for a stringent test of quantum electrodynamics (QED)in the presence of strong electric fields. g-factor measurements on the electron bound in hydrogen-like ions ¹²C⁵⁺ and ¹⁶O⁷⁺, using single ions confined in a Penning trap, have yielded values in agreement with theory on the ppb level. If the QED calculations are considered correct, the results can in turn be used for a determination of fundamental constants like the electron mass m_e, the fine structure constant α or nuclear parameters. We report about presentdevelopments towards g-factor measurements also in medium-heavy and heavy highly-charged ions.     

A new value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron

The contribution to the sixth order anomaly a_e⁽⁶⁾ from light-by-light scattering subgraphs is recomputed. The result is: a_e^γ?γ = (α³/π³)(0.366 ± 0.010). This result agrees with a previous calculation done at SLAC. The accuracy is improved by a factor of 4. With the currently accepted values for many of the other diagrams, the sixth order anomaly is a_e⁽⁶⁾ = (1.16 ± 0.07) (σ/π)³.     

A new approach to the problem of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron

A heuristic model for deriving the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron is presented. A term /2 – 0.327(/)² is deduced, in better agreement with experiment than is the QED derivation of /2 – 0.328(/)². The result is strengthened by the recent non-QED account of the Lamb shift by Yu and Sachs.     

The short distance behaviour of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron

The effective anomalous magnetic moment of the electron vanishes at short distances because the electrodynamic form factor F₂(q²) vanishes for |q²| → ∞. The effective potential due to the interaction between the anomalous magnetic moment and the Coulomb field of a nucleus only diverges logarithmically at short distances, and not, as might naively be expected, quadratically. There are no other bound states of an electron in a Coulomb field than the well-known atomic states. In particular, there is no room for high mass resonances emulating the ψ as suggested by Barut and Kraus.     

The spin and the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron in stochastic electrodynamics

It is proposed that the zitterbewegung induced on a harmonically bound electron by the zero-point radiation field accounts for the spin of the electron. Assuming that the measurement of a spin projection may be taken into account phenomenologically by considering the action of only the subensemble of the zero-point field with the corresponding circular polarization, the theory gives a satisfactory account of both the spin projection and the anomalous magnetic moment.     

Supersymmetry and the anomalous anomalous magnetic moment of the muon

The recently reported measurement of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment differs from the standard model prediction by 2.6 sigma. We examine the implications of this discrepancy for supersymmetry. Deviations of the reported magnitude are generic in supersymmetric theories. Based on the new result, we derive model-independent upper bounds on the masses of observable supersymmetric particles. We also examine several model frameworks. The sign of the reported deviation is as predicted in many simple models, but disfavors anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking.     

Stronger neutrino interactions at extremely high energies and the muon anomalous magnetic moment

A specific model of parity-conserving lepton substructure is considered. We show that a positive-definite contribution to the muon at the possible level of about can be related to a significant increase in the interaction cross section for cosmic-ray neutrinos with energies above about eV. The additional cross section at eV is calculated to be cm, which is about 100 times the standard weak-interaction cross section. The model involves an extremely massive, neutral lepton, with GeV fixed by the new contribution to . Received: 28 May 2001 / Revised version: 13 November 2001 / Published online: 11 January 2002     

Magnetic correction to the anomalous magnetic moment of electrons

We investigate the leading order correction of anomalous magnetic moment (AMM) to electrons in a weak magnetic field and find that the magnetic correction is negative and magnetic field dependent, indicating a magnetic catalysis effect for the electron gas. In the laboratory, to measure the g − 2, the magnitude of the magnetic field B is several T, and correspondingly the magnetic correction to the AMM of electron/muon is around 10⁻³⁴/10⁻⁴², therefore the magnetic correction can be safely neglected in the current measurement. However, when the magnitude of the magnetic field strength is comparable with the electron mass, the magnetic correction of the electron's AMM will become considerable. This general magnetic correction to the charged fermion's AMM can be extended to study quantum chromodynamic matter under a strong magnetic field.     

Off-mass-shell muon anomalous magnetic moment

Interaction of charged leptons with photons is considered for the case when one of the lepton legs is off the mass shell. The effect due to off-mass-shell shift in the anomalous magnetic moment is computed within one-loop approximation. Possible contributions of this effect in the muon g — 2 measurements are discussed.     

Hadronic loop corrections to the muon anomalous magnetic moment

The dominant theoretical uncertainties in both the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and the value of the electromagnetic coupling at the Z scale, M(Z), arise from their hadronic contributions. Since these will ultimately dominate the experimental errors, we study the correlation between them, as well as with other fundamental parameters. To this end we present analytical formulas for the QCD contribution from higher energies and from heavy quarks. Including these correlations affects the Higgs boson mass extracted from precision data.