Gravitational contributions to the electron $g$-factor

Abstract

In a previous paper, the authors with Ann Nelson proposed that the UV and IR applicability of effective quantum field theories should be constrained by requiring that strong gravitational effects are nowhere encountered in a theory's domain of validity [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4971 (1999)]. The constraint was proposed to delineate the boundary beyond which conventional quantum field theory, viewed as an effective theory excluding quantum gravitational effects, might be expected to break down. In this Letter we revisit this idea and show that quantum gravitational effects could lead to a deviation of size $(\alpha/2\pi)\sqrt{m_e/M_p}$ from the Standard Model calculation for the electron magnetic moment. This is the same size as QED and hadronic uncertainties in the theory of $a_e$, and a little more than one order of magnitude smaller than both the dominant uncertainty in its Standard Model value arising from the accuracy with which $\alpha$ is measured, as well as the experimental uncertainty in measurement of $a_e$.