Higgs not found...yet
13 Dec 2011 by Evoluted New Media
The end of the Large Hadron Collider’s 2011 run has revealed a glimpse of the elusive Higgs boson – but not enough for physicists to proclaiming its discovery.
Scientists at CERN say that two experiments at the LHC –ATLAS and CMS – have seen hints of the particle at the same mass, but that more data is needed before a conclusive discovery can be announced.
“We have restricted the most likely mass region for the Higgs boson to 116-130 GeV, and over the last few weeks we have started to see an intriguing excess of events in the mass range around 125 GeV,” explained ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti. “This excess may be due to a fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data. Given the outstanding performance of the LHC this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.”
Rumours suggest that both ATLAS and CMS see a data spike at t125 GeV, but the statistical certainty of their measurement is still too low to claim a formal discovery.
“We cannot exclude the presence of the Standard Model Higgs between 115 and 127 GeV because of a modest excess of events in this mass region that appears, quite consistently, in five independent channels,” explained CMS experiment Spokesperson, Guido Tonelli. “The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive. As of today what we see is consistent either with a background fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will definitely give an answer.”
Over the coming months, both the experiments will be further refining their analyses in time for the winter particle physics conferences in March.
