

Higgs in ATLAS, maybe - Happer
http://resonaances.blogspot.com/2011/04/higgs-at-atlas-maybe.html

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jtdowney
I can add this blog to the list of things to read when I want to feel stupid.
Definitely cool if it turns out to be true.

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jarin
I just chalk it up to the fact that I can't possibly know everything. As long
as I'm good at programming and/or business, I'm ok with basking in the glory
of science without being an active participant. :)

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ohashi
Someone care to translate?

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elwin
The LHC's ATLAS detector is finding many pairs of photons with a total energy
of 115 GeV. This is usually a sign that the collision produced a 115 GeV
particle which decayed into a photon pair. There are suspicions that this
particle is the long-predicted Higgs boson, because many models estimate the
Higgs' mass at 115 GeV.

However, the percentage of collisions which result in this phenomenon isn't in
agreement with any of our current models of how the Higgs boson behaves. It's
not certain that the new 115 GeV particle is in fact the Higgs; if it is, the
Higgs models will need more revising.

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mctavjb9
This result should be taken with a large chunk of NaCl until the analysis is
internally approved by the collaboration and peer reviewed. Although it's been
a while since I got my Ph.D. in experimental particle physics, I do remember
that di-photon data sets are subject to significant sources of background from
a variety of decay processes that produce one photon + a jet of hadrons, 2
jets, a Z boson decaying to electrons etc. Accurately filtering out and
estimating the purity of the data sample is crucial, particularly when
claiming the discovery of a new particle. My money is on a some combination of
a statistical fluctuation, an inaccurately modeled background, or mis-
estimated systematic uncertainty that is creating an artificial "bump." I look
forward to being proven wrong and hope that ATLAS and CMS discover _something_
so that high-energy physics doesn't go down in the dustbin of history because
it's gotten too bloated and expensive to sustain.

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clistctrl
I was under the impression the LHC was down until 2012 while some changes were
being made.

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lobster_johnson
They are analyzing already-gathered data from 2010 and 2011.

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mctavjb9
Yes, but the LHC is actually running at this very moment and will be
operational through the end of 2012. CERN opted to run at 7 TeV and put off
the shutdown required to increase the energy to 14 TeV. In fact, the LHC just
set a world record for beam intensity:
[http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2011/PR...](http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2011/PR02.11E.html)

