Lattice QCD Studies of the Leading Order Hadronic Contribution to the Muon g 2
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, g 2, is one of the most promising observables to identify hints for physics beyond the Standard Model. QCD contributions are currently responsible for the largest fraction of the overall theoretical uncertainty in g 2. The possibility to determine these hadronic contributions from first principles through lattice QCD calculations has triggered a number of recent studies. Recent proposals to improve the accuracy of lattice determinations are reported. We present an update of our studies of the leading-order hadronic contribution to g 2 with improved Wilson fermions.

title: Hadronic contribution to the lepton anomalous magnetic moment and pion form factor in lattice QCD
abstract: The Mainz lattice QCD group is currently carrying out simulations of lattice QCD with the aim of making predictions for a wide range of phenomenologically relevant Standard Model properties. Here we present progress in understanding and controlling systematic effects in the computation of the pion vector form factor and the leading hadronic contribution to the lepton anomalous magnetic moment.

title: Study of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon computed from the Adler function
abstract: We compute the Adler function on the lattice from vacuum polarization data with twisted boundary conditions using numerical derivatives. The study is based on CLS ensembles with two flavours of $O(a)$ improved Wilson fermions. We extrapolate the lattice data for the Adler function to the continuum limit and to the physical pion mass and analyze its dependence on the momentum transfer. We discuss the application of this method to the extraction of the $u,d$ contribution to $a_\mu^{\mathrm{HLO}}$.

title: The leading disconnected contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon
abstract: The hadronic vacuum polarization can be determined from the vector correlator in a mixed time-momentum representation. We explicitly calculate the disconnected contribution to the vector correlator, both in the $N_f = 2$ theory and with an additional quenched strange quark, using non-perturbatively $O(a)$-improved Wilson fermions. All-to-all propagators are computed using stochastic sources and a generalized hopping parameter expansion. Combining the result with the dominant connected contribution, we are able to estimate an upper bound for the systematic error that arises from neglecting the disconnected contribution in the determination of $(g-2)_\mu$.

title: Excited state systematics in extracting nucleon electromagnetic form factors
abstract: We present updated preliminary results for the nucleon electromagnetic form factors for nonperturbatively O(a) improved Wilson fermions in N f = 2 QCD measured on the CLS ensembles. The use of the summed operator insertion method allows us to suppress the influence of excited states in our measurements. A study of the effect that excited state contaminations have on the Q2 dependence of the extracted nucleon form factors may then be made through comparisons of the summation method to standard plateau fits, as well as to excited state fits.

title: The shape of covariantly smeared sources in lattice QCD
abstract: A bstractCovariantly smeared sources are commonly used in lattice QCD to enhance the projection onto the ground state. Here we investigate the dependence of their shape on the gauge field background and find that the presence of localized concentrations of magnetic field can lead to strong distortions which reduce the smearing radii achievable by iterative smearing prescriptions. In particular, as a → 0, iterative procedures like Jacobi smearing require increasingly large iteration counts in order to reach physically-sized smearing radii rsm ~ 0.5 fm, and the resulting sources are strongly distorted. To bypass this issue, we propose a covariant smearing procedure (“free-form smearing”) that allows us to create arbitrarily shaped sources, including in particular Gaussians of arbitrary radius.

title: QCD corrections to vector-boson fusion processes in Warped Higgsless models
abstract: We discuss the signatures of a representative Higgsless model with ideal fermion delocalization in vector-boson fusion processes, focusing on the gold- and silver-plated decay modes of the gauge bosons at the CERN-Large Hadron Collider. For this purpose, we have developed a fully-flexible parton-level Monte-Carlo program, which allows for the calculation of cross sections and kinematic distributions within experimentally feasible selection cuts at NLO-QCD accuracy. We find that Kaluza-Klein resonances give rise to very distinctive distributions of the decay leptons. Similar to the Standard Model case, within the Higgsless scenario the perturbative treatment of the vector-boson scattering processes is under excellent control.

title: Vector Boson Pair Production via Vector Boson Fusion at NLO QCD
abstract: NLO QCD corrections to Vector Boson Pair Production via Vector Boson Fusion have recently been calculated and implemented in a parton-level Monte-Carlo program with full experimental cuts. We briefly sketch the elements of the calculation and show numerical results for the Large Hadron Collider.

title: Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to high p(T) pion production in longitudinally polarized pp collisions
abstract: We present a calculation for single-inclusive large-p_T pion production in longitudinally polarized pp collisions in next-to-leading order QCD. We choose an approach where fully analytical expressions for the underlying partonic hard-scattering cross sections are obtained. We simultaneously rederive the corresponding corrections to unpolarized scattering and confirm the results existing in the literature. Our results allow to calculate the double-spin asymmetry A_LL^pi for this process at next-to-leading order, which will soon be used at BNL-RHIC to measure the polarization of gluons in the nucleon.

title: Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to photon production via weak-boson fusion
abstract: We present a calculation of next-to-leading order QCD corrections to γjj production via weak-boson fusion at a hadron collider in the form of a flexible parton-level Monte Carlo program which allows us to study cross sections and distributions within experimentally relevant selection cuts. The radiative corrections are found to be moderate with residual scale uncertainties being considerably improved beyond tree level. The sensitivity of the reaction to anomalous W+W−γ couplings is investigated.

title: Next-to-leading-order QCD corrections to W(+)Z and W(-)Z production via vector-boson fusion
abstract: We present the calculation of the next-to-leading-order QCD corrections to electroweak pp{yields}e{sup +} The QCD corrections to the total cross sections are modest, changing the leading-order results by less than 10%. At the Born level, the shape of kinematic distributions can depend significantly on the choice of factorization scale. This theoretical uncertainty is strongly reduced by the inclusion of the next-to-leading-order QCD corrections.