Theory of the Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment

The theory of the muon anomalous magnetic moment is "particle physics in a nutshell" and as such is interesting, exciting and difficult. The current precision of the experimental value for this quantity, improved significantly in the past several years due to experiment E821 at Brookhaven National Laboratory, is so high that a large number of subtle effects not relevant previously, become important for the interpretation of the experimental result. The theory of the muon anomalous magnetic moment is at the cutting edge of current research in particle physics and includes multiloop calculations in both QED and electroweak theory, precision low-energy hadron physics, isospin violations and scattering of light by light. Any deviation between the theoretical prediction and the experimental value might be interpreted as a signal of an as-yet-unknown new physics. This book provides a comprehensive review of the theory of the muon anomalous magnetic moment.