Searching for hadronic scale baryonic and dark forces at (g - 2)_µ’s lattice-vs-dispersion front

The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (a_µ) provides a stringent test of the quantum nature of the Standard Model (SM) and its extensions. To probe beyond the SM physics, one needs to be able to subtract the SM contributions, which consists of a non-perturbative part, namely, the hadronic vacuum polarization (HVP) of the photon. The state of the art is to predominantly use two different methods to extract this HVP: lattice computation, and dispersion relation-based, data-driven method. Thus one can construct different forms of the “a_µ test” which compares the precise measurement of a_µ to its theory prediction. Additionally, this opens the possibility for another subtle test, where these two “theory” predictions themselves are compared against each other, which is denoted as the “HVP-test”. This test is particularly sensitive to hadronic scale new physics. Therefore, in this work, we consider an SM extension consisting of a generic, light ~ (100 MeV – 1 GeV) vector boson and study its impact on both tests. We develop a comprehensive formalism for this purpose. We find that in the case of data-driven HVP being used in the a_µ test, the new physics contributions effectively cancel for a flavor-universal vector boson. As an illustration of these general results, we consider two benchmark models: i) the dark photon (A^') and ii) a gauge boson coupled to baryon-number (B). Using a combination of these tests, we are able to constrain the parameter space of B and A^', complementarily to the existing limits. As a spin-off, our preliminary analysis of the spectrum of the invariant mass of 3p in events with ISR at the B- factories (BaBar, Belle) manifests the value of such a study in searching for B ? 3p decay, thus motivating a dedicated search by experimental collaborations.