The MUonE Experiment: A Third Path to Understanding the Muon g‑2

8 Jun 2026, 15:40
25m
Scuola Normale Superiore, Aula Dini, Palazzo del Castelletto (Pisa)

Scuola Normale Superiore, Aula Dini, Palazzo del Castelletto

Pisa

Via del Castelletto, 11, 56126 Pisa PI

Speaker

Giorgia Cacciola (University of Liverpool)

Description

The MUonE experiment, currently under preparation at CERN, aims to measure the running of the electromagnetic coupling $\alpha$ in the elastic $\mu e$ scattering process, from which the dominant hadronic contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be extracted. The method is based on collisions of 160 GeV muons from CERN’s high‑intensity M2 beam with thin, fixed targets made of low‑Z material, and represents an alternative to the traditional dispersive integral of hadronic cross sections from e+e- annihilation. The latter shows tensions with the muon g-2 measurement, depending on the input data, while the purely theoretical prediction from lattice QCD calculations agrees with the experiment. MUonE’s method, being completely independent and data‑driven, therefore constitutes a third approach. The main challenge of the MUonE measurement lies in the control of systematic effects. In the summer of 2025, a two‑month test run was carried out with a reduced but fully functional version of the apparatus. Preliminary results will be presented, and future plans will be discussed.

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Authors

Giorgia Cacciola (University of Liverpool) Giovanni Abbiendi (INFN - Bologna)

Presentation materials