Hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the muon g - 2: an effective field theory approach

The hadronic light-by-light contribution to a(mu), the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, is discussed from the point of view of an effective low-energy theory. As an application, the coefficient of the leading logarithm arising from the two-loop graphs involving two anomalous vertices is computed, and found to be positive. This corresponds to a positive sign for the pion-pole contribution to the hadronic light-by-light correction to a(mu), and to a sizable reduction of the discrepancy between the present experimental value of a(mu) and its theoretical counterpart in the standard model.