Hadronic \tau decays and QCD

Hadronic decays of the $\tau$ lepton provide a clean source to study hadron dynamics in an energy regime dominated by resonances, with the interesting information captured in the spectral functions. Recent results on exclusive channels are reviewed. Inclusive spectral functions are the basis for QCD analyses, delivering an accurate determination of the strong coupling constant and quantitative information on nonperturbative contributions. Strange decays yield a determination of the strange quark mass.Comment: 13 page

e+e- results from BABAR and implications for g-2

The BABAR collaboration has nearly completed a program of precise measurements of the cross sections for the dominant channels of e+e- --> hadrons from threshold to an energy of 3-5 GeV using the initial-state radiation (ISR) method, i.e. the measurement of the cross sections e+e- --> gamma hadrons with the energetic photon detected at large angle to the beams. These data are used as input to vacuum polarization dispersion integrals, in particular the hadronic contribution to the muon g-2 anomaly. In addition to the recently measured pi+pi- cross section, giving the dominant contibution, many multihadronic channels have been investigated, with some recent examples presented here. We give preliminary results for the process e+e- --> K+K-(gamma) using 232 fb-1 of data collected with the BABAR detector at e+e- center-of-mass energies near 10.6 GeV. The lowest-order contribution to the hadronic vacuum polarization term in the muon magnetic anomaly is obtained for this channel: amu-KK-LO=(22.95 +-0.14(stat) +-0.22(syst)) 10^-10, which is about a factor of three more precise than the previous world average value.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, talk given at the Tau Workshop, September 2012, Nagoy

Updated estimate of the muon magnetic moment using revised results from e+e- annihilation

A new evaluation of the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution to the muon magnetic moment is presented. We take into account the reanalysis of the low-energy \ee annihilation cross section into hadrons by the CMD-2 Collaboration. The agreement between \ee and $\tau$ spectral functions in the $\pi\pi$ channel is found to be much improved. Nevertheless, significant discrepancies remain in the center-of-mass energy range between 0.85 and $1.0 {\rm GeV}/c^2$.The deviations from the measurement at BNL are found to be $(22.1 \pm 7.2 \pm 3.5 \pm 8.0)~10^{-10}$ (1.9 $\sigma$) and $(7.4 \pm 5.8 \pm 3.5 \pm 8.0)~10^{-10}$ (0.7 $\sigma$) for the \ee- and $\tau$-based estimates, respectively, where the second error is from the nonhadronic contributions and the third one from the BNL measurement. Taking into account the $\rho^- - \rho^0$ mass splitting determined from the measured spectral functions increases the $\tau$-based estimate and leads to a worse discrepancy between the two estimates.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the SIGHAD03 workshop (Pisa, October 2003) on e+e- annihilation cross sections at low energ

Progress on R measurement through ISR with BaBar

The status of the ISR analysis with BaBar is presented. Preliminary results are given on the process e+e- --> 2pi+ 2pi- and J/psi decays including a determination of its total width and the branching ratios into 2pi+ 2pi-, K+ K- pi+ pi-, and 2K+ 2K- modes.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of the SIGHAD03 workshop (Pisa, October 2003) on e+e- annihilation cross sections at low energ

Spectral functions from Hadronic Tau Decays and QCD

Hadronic decays of the $\tau$ lepton provide a clean environment to study hadron dynamics in an energy regime dominated by resonances, with the interesting information captured in the spectral functions. Recent results from ALEPH on exclusive channels are presented, with some emphasis on the \pi \piz final state which plays a crucial role for the determination of the hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment. Inclusive spectral functions are the basis for QCD analyses, delivering an accurate determination of the strong coupling constant, quantitative information on nonperturbative contributions and a measurement of the mass of the strange quark.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures, invited talk at the Tau02 Workshop, Santa Cruz, Sept. 200

New Results on the Hadronic Contributions to alpha(M_Z) and to (g-2)_mu

We reevaluate the dispersion integrals of the leading order hadronic contributions to the running of the QED fine structure constant alpha(s) at s=M_Z^2, and to the anomalous magnetic moments of the muon and the electron. Finite-energy QCD sum rule techniques complete the data from e+e- annihilation and tau decays at low energy and at the cc-bar threshold. Global quark-hadron duality is assumed in order to resolve the integrals using the Operator Product Expansion wherever it is applicable. We obtain delta_alpha_had(M_Z) = (276.3 +/- 1.6)x10^{-4} yielding alpha^{-1}(M_Z) = 128.933 +/- 0.021, and a_mu^had = (692.4 +/- 6.2)x10^{-10} with which we find for the complete Standard Model prediction a_mu^SM = (11659159.6 +/- 6.7)x10^{-10}. For the electron, the hadronic contribution reads a_e^had = (187.5 +/- 1.8)x10^{-14}.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure

Comments on "An Update of the HLS Estimate of the Muon g-2"by M.Benayoun {\it et al.}, arXiv:1210.7184v3

In a recent paper \cite{benayoun} M.Benayoun {\it et al.} use a specific model to compare results on the existing data for the cross section of the process $e^+e^-\rightarrow \pi^+\pi^-$ and state conclusions about the inconsistency of the BABAR results with those from the other experiments. We show that a direct model-independent comparison of the data at hand contradicts this claim. Clear discrepancies with the results of Ref. \cite{benayoun} are pointed out. As a consequence we do not believe that the lower value and the smaller uncertainty obtained for the prediction of the muon magnetic anomaly are reliable results.Comment: 7 pages,2 figures, comment

Two-photon exchange model for production of neutral meson pairs in e+e- annihilation

A vector-dominance two-photon exchange model is proposed to explain the recently observed production of $\rho^0\rho^0$ and $\rho^0\phi$ pairs in $e^+e^-$ annihilation at 10.58 GeV with the BaBar detector. All the observed features of the data --angular and decay distributions, rates-- are in agreement with the model. Predictions are made for yet-unobserved final states.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

The Hadronic Contribution to the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment and to the Running Electromagnetic Fine Structure Constant at MZ - Overview and Latest Results

Quantum loops induce an anomaly, a_mu, in the magnetic moment of the muon that can be accurately measured. Its Standard Model prediction is limited in precision by contributions from hadronic vacuum polarisation of the photon. The dominant lowest-order hadronic term can be calculated with a combination of experimental cross section data, involving e+e- annihilation to hadrons, and perturbative QCD. These are used to evaluate an energy-squared dispersion integral that strongly emphasises low photon virtualities. The dominant contribution to the integral stems from the two-pion channel that can be measured both in e+e- annihilation and in tau decays. The corresponding e+e- and tau-based predictions of a_mu exhibit deviations by, respectively, 3.6 sigma and 2.4 sigma from experiment, leaving room for a possible interpretation in terms of new physics. This talk reviews the status of the Standard Model prediction with emphasis on the lowest-order hadronic contribution. Also given is the latest result for the running electromagnetic fine structure constant at the Z-mass pole, whose precision is limited by hadronic vacuum polarisation contributions, determined in a way similar to those of the magnetic anomaly.Comment: Proceedings of talk at Tau2010 Workshop, Manchester, UK, 13-17 Sep, 2010; 10 pages, 8 figure

Recent progress on isospin breaking corrections and their impact on the muon g-2 value

We describe some recent results on isospin breaking corrections which are of relevance for predictions of the leading order hadronic contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment (amuhadLO) when using tau lepton data. When these corrections are applied to the new combined data on the pi^+pi^0 spectral function, the prediction for amuhadLO based on tau lepton data gets closer to the one obtained using e^+e^- data.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the PhiPsi09 Workshop, Oct. 13-16, 2009, Beijing, China. Some typos corrected, and the FSR correction used in a previous work is added to Table