The anomalous magnetic moment of the electron and the quantum electrodynamics determination of the fine-structure constant

We report the present status of our calculation of the eighth-order quantum electrodynamics (QED) contribution to the electron anomalous magnetic moment a
e
. Combining the tentative result with the very precise measurement of a
e
by the University of Washington group, one can determine the fine-structure constant a to a precision of 2 × 10
⁻⁸
. Our result is compared with other determinations of a including that of the quantized Hall effect.