Isospin Breaking in the Relation Between the tau-->nu_tau pi pi and e^+e^- -->pi^+ pi^- Versions of |F_\pi (s)|^2$ and Implications for (g-2)_mu

Abstract

We investigate two points related to existing treatments of isospin-breaking corrections to the CVC relation between the e^+e^- --> pi^+ pi^- cross-section and dGamma[tau^- --> nu_tau pi^- pi^0]/ds. Implications for the value of the hadronic contribution to a_mu =(g-2)_mu /2 based on those analyses incorporating hadronic tau decay data are also considered. We conclude that the uncertainty on the isospin-breaking correction which must be applied to the tau decay data should be significantly increased, and that the central value of the rho-omega ``mixing'' contribution to this correction may be significantly smaller than indicated by the present standard determination. Such a shift would contribute to reducing the discrepancy between the tau- and electroproduction-based determinations of the leading order hadronic contribution to a_mu.