Physicists show strengthened signals of Higgs-like particle in publications

Protons collide in the CMS detector at 8 TeV, forming Z bosons which decay into electrons (green lines) and muons (red). Such an event is compatible with the decay of a Standard Model Higgs boson. Image: CMS

The CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider released papers Tuesday confirming their earlier simultaneous, independent discovery of a particle that resembles the Standard Model Higgs boson.

The ATLAS paper reports the observance of a Higgs-like particle with a 5.9 sigma confidence level, up from the 5.0 sigma reported on July 4.

The CMS paper likewise reports a Higgs-like particle, with a 5-sigma level of confidence.
“We believe that what we have observed will be shown to be an elementary spinless particle,” CMS Spokesperson Joe Incandela said. “This is something we have never seen before and really important to study in detail. We are going to see a lot of creativity in trying to get at a better understanding of its properties. It’s a great achievement for the field and an important milestone in human intellectual history.” See: Symmetry Breaking Magazine

See Also:

• At a Workshop; and Higgs Papers Are Out