

Observation of a new particle in the search for the Higgs boson - mepcotterell
http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214

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copper
Well, it does go on to say:

> This observation, which has a significance of 5.9 standard deviations,
> corresponding to a background fluctuation probability of 1.7x10^-9, is
> compatible with the production and decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson.

Technically it could be another particle with a 126GeV mass, though that's
hopefully something more experiments will show one way or the other.

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Zenst
I do wonder if the higgs is a funny creature in that it has a sort of quantum
echo. By that I mean that it is in more than one place at once, this would
also help explain why gravity is as weak as it is. If that is the case then
you could think of the higgs as being like a bouncy ball with the decay of the
various bounces all actualy happening at once (may explain those
fluctuations). Though if you were to observe a bouncy ball and sample its
movement slow enough then they would appear to be as one event. Just my theory
of things and I hope more is proven given the higgs will help to one day make
the theory of gravity a fully understood fact. My physics was formaly high-
school level and the rest is from a passing interest of all things science so
if I appear to be so wrong then maybe somebody could point out the details so
that I may not make the same mistakes again.

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Daniel_Newby
The Higgs boson is not thought to be related to gravity, beyond giving mass to
some particles. The Higgs particle is the "chunky" form of the Higgs field,
just like a photon of light is a little chunk of electric field that has
broken off and gone into business for itself.

If you have more questions about physics, ask /r/physics on Reddit. They
people there are very nice and include several serious physicists.

~~~
Zenst
Thank you very much Sir

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altarelli
"1 the western equivalent value is 1'390 kCHF. 2 the western equivalent value
is 5'450 kCHF"

[http://lhcb.ecm.ub.es/spd/spd/General%20information/spd_cost...](http://lhcb.ecm.ub.es/spd/spd/General%20information/spd_cost_tdr.pdf)

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Steko
That's a lot of researchers, 3 Zimmerman's alone! Which 3 get their name on
the Nobel Prize when it comes out?

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pluies
Zimmerman, obviously!

On a more serious note, it appears that the Nobel Prize can be awarded to
organizations, which would make CERN the most likely recipient. This said, as
far as I can say only the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in such a way in
the past.

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InclinedPlane
The Higgs wasn't the only predicted particle that evidence has been found for
recently. It looks like the Fermi gamma-ray telescope found some decent
evidence that cosmological dark matter is composed of neutralinos, which have
a rest mass, oddly, about half that of the Higgs:

Evidence for gamma-ray halos around galaxy clusters:
<http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.1003>

Evidence for a 130 GeV spike in gamma-ray emissions in certain locales:
<http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.1045>

