The muon g-2 and lattice QCD hadronic vacuum polarization may point to new, long-lived neutral hadrons

Abstract

The experimental value of g-2 of the muon is larger by $4.2 \sigma$ than the Standard Model prediction based on the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution (HVP) determined from the measured R-ratio, $\sigma(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons})/\sigma(e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \!\mu^+ \mu^-)$; the HVP calculated in lattice QCD also significantly exceeds the measured R-ratio value. We show here that these discrepancies can be explained by an undetected contribution to $e^+e^- \! \rightarrow \! \mathit{hadrons}$ as could arise from production of neutral, long-lived hadrons which have not previously been identified. We suggest two candidates for the new hadrons and propose several experimental tests.