We present a model-independent method to estimate the effects of short-distance constraints (SDCs) on the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment $$a_\mu ^\text {HLbL}$$ a μ HLbL . The relevant loop integral is evaluated using multi-parameter families of interpolation functions, which satisfy by construction all constraints derived from general principles and smoothly connect the low-energy region with those where either two or all three independent photon virtualities become large. In agreement with other recent model-based analyses, we find that the SDCs and thus the infinite towers of heavy intermediate states that are responsible for saturating them have a rather small effect on $$a_\mu ^\text {HLbL}$$ a μ HLbL . Taking as input the known ground-state pseudoscalar pole contributions, we obtain that the longitudinal SDCs increase $$a_\mu ^\text {HLbL}$$ a μ HLbL by $$(9.1\pm 5.0) \times 10^{-11}$$ ( 9.1 ± 5.0 ) × 10 - 11 , where the isovector channel is responsible for $$(2.6\pm 1.5) \times 10^{-11}$$ ( 2.6 ± 1.5 ) × 10 - 11 . More precise estimates can be obtained with our method as soon as further accurate, model-independent information about important low-energy contributions from hadronic states with masses up to 1–2 GeV become available.

We present a new strategy for the dispersive evaluation of the hadronic light-by-light contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon aμ. The new approach directly applies in the kinematic limit relevant for aμ: one of the photons is treated as an external electromagnetic field with vanishing momentum, so that the kinematics corresponds to a triangle. We derive expressions for the relevant single-particle intermediate states, as well as the tensor decompositions of the two-pion sub-processes that appear in addition to those needed in the established dispersive approach. The existing approach is based on a set of dispersion relations for the hadronic light-by-light tensor in four-point kinematics. At present it is not known how to consistently include in this framework resonant intermediate states of spin 2 or larger, due to the appearance of kinematic singularities that can be traced back to the redundancy of the tensor decomposition. We show that our new approach circumvents this problem and enables dispersion relations in the limit of triangle kinematics that are manifestly free from kinematic singularities, paving the way towards a data-driven evaluation of all relevant exclusive hadronic intermediate states.

No abstract