February 8, 2012

Hints of the Higgs - papers are submitted

by Science and Technology Facilities Council

A typical candidate event including two high-energy photons whose energy (depicted by dashed yellow lines and red towers) is measured in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter. The yellow lines are the measured tracks of other particles produced in the collision. Image: CERN

Back in December 2011, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN presented some exciting results that provided tantalising hints of the Higgs boson.

Today, these results are being submitted for publication in the journal Physics Letters B.

The papers show that subsequent analysis supports the statistical significance of the results presented at the much-publicised seminar in December. However the results are still not sufficient to meet the particle physics community's strict definition of a discovery.

More data is required to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson and this will be collected by the ATLAS and CMS experiments when the Large Hadron Collider resumes operation in March.

More information is available on the CERN website.

Provided by Science and Technology Facilities Council

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