Current correlators in QCD (and QED) at zero and finite temperature

by Tim Harris (ETH Zürich)

Monday 22 Jun 2026, 14:30 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

U2-03 (Building U2 - Quantum)

Correlation functions of conserved currents play an important role in the Standard Model. For example, hadronic vacuum polarization enters in precision determinations of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment and electroweak precision tests, and whose uncertainty is dominated by the low-energy non-perturbative regime. Lattice QCD estimates have reached the precision where the QED corrections cannot be neglected. In this talk I will discuss a programme using the framework of C* (or C-periodic) boundary conditions to include such effects on a finite lattice in a way consistent with locality and gauge invariance. In another phase at extreme temperatures, correlators of conserved currents parameterize interesting in-medium processes and collective behaviour. I will outline a new approach to constrain some thermal production rates which are relevant for heavy-ion collision phenomenology. While a quantitative description is still challenging, the methodology required for future progress has significant overlap with precision computations.