Signal for Higgs Boson Particle Gains Strength
The latest analyses from the Large Hadron
Collider boost the case for the particle's existence, but
there's no new data
By Geoff
Brumfiel and Nature
News Blog | February
7, 2012
Reanalyses of existing data have pushed the
overall Higgs signal up to 4.3�.Image:
CMS
Today the two main experiments at theLarge
Hadron Collider (LHC),
the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, submitted the
results of their latest analyses. The new papers boost
the case for December’s announcement of a possible
Higgs signal, but let’s not get too
excited.
First, there’s no new data in there—the LHC
stopped colliding protons back in November, and these latest
results are just rehashes that earlier run. In the case of the
Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), physicists have been able to look
at another possible kind of Higgs decay, and that allows them to
boost their Higgs signal from 2.5σ to 3.1σ. Taken together with
data from the other detector, ATLAS, Higgs overall signal now
unofficially stands at about 4.3σ. In other words, if statistics
are to be believed, then this signal has about a 99.996 percent
chance of being right.
It all sounds very convincing, but keep your hat
on, because the fact is that statistical coincidences happen
every day. Over at Cosmic Variance, Sean Carroll points out
that there
is a 3.8σ signal in the Super Bowl coin toss.
Does that mean that they’ve discovered a super-partner to the
bowl? No. (If you don’t get that joke, don’t worry, it was
written only as punishment for those who would).
After the LHC starts this spring, we’ll be much
closer to knowing what’s actually going on. Right now,
scientists are meeting
in Chamonix, France to decide at what
power to run the collider this coming year. The latest rumours
are that the machine will push from 7 to 8 TeV, and it will also
increase its luminosity (the number of collisions per pass).
Source: Scientific
American
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