[News-releases] Physicists Say They Can Smell but Not Yet Taste the Higgs Boson

[Tim Meyer]

News Release | For Immediate Release | December 13, 2011

PHYSICISTS SAY THEY CAN SMELL BUT NOT YET TASTE THE HIGGS BOSON
Canadians Involved in the Experiment Are Excited and Eager to Press Forward

(Vancouver, BC) --- In a seminar held at CERN this morning and then repeated
across Canada at multiple partnering institutions, the ATLAS and CMS
experiments presented the status of their searches for the Standard Model
Higgs boson.  Finding this particle would snap in the last missing puzzle
piece of the Standard Model that describes the universe at its most basic
level.  Tantalizing hints have been seen by both experiments in the same
mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.  The
main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is
most likely to have a mass in the range 115-130 GeV, excluding essentially
all other hiding places.  

“We are at a crossroads in our understanding of how energy gained mass and
became matter in the early universe,” said Rob McPherson, spokesperson of
the Canadian team working on the ATLAS project and a professor at the
University of Victoria and a research scientist with the Institute of
Particle Physics.  “If these hints lead to a firm discovery over the coming
year, we will be at the start of our investigation of the interactions that
lie behind our current theories.  If they are not confirmed, we will have to
reject our present understanding, throw out our current theories, and start
over.  It is an extremely interesting time in particle physics.”

Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many
different ways. Discovery relies on observing the particles they decay into
rather than the Higgs itself. Both ATLAS and CMS have analyzed several decay
channels, and the experiments see small excesses in the low mass region that
has not yet been excluded.  In a sense, physicists have now surrounded the
last remaining location where the Higgs could be hiding. 

Taken individually, none of these excesses is any more statistically
significant than rolling a die and coming up with two sixes in a row. What
is interesting is that there are multiple independent measurements pointing
to the region of 124 to 126 GeV. It’s far too early to say whether ATLAS and
CMS have discovered the Higgs boson, but these updated results are
generating a lot of interest in the particle-physics community.

“There will be no early holiday present for particle physicists,” said Nigel
S. Lockyer, director of the TRIUMF laboratory that has had a key role in
driving Canadian involvement in this global project.  “We don’t have the
Higgs in our hands yet, but we’re closing in.  We will have a lot to confirm
and then celebrate in the next year.” 

“We have restricted the most likely mass region for the Higgs boson to
116-130 GeV, and over the last few weeks we have started to see an
intriguing excess of events in the mass range around 125 GeV,” explained
ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti. “This excess may be due to a
fluctuation, but it could also be something more interesting. We cannot
conclude anything at this stage. We need more study and more data. Given the
outstanding performance of the LHC this year, we will not need to wait long
for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.” 

CMS experiment Spokesperson, Guido Tonelli, explained “The excess is most
compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below
but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything
conclusive. As of today what we see is consistent either with a background
fluctuation or with the presence of the boson. Refined analyses and
additional data delivered in 2012 by this magnificent machine will
definitely give an answer.”

Over the coming months, both experiments will be further refining their
analyses in time for the winter particle physics conferences in March.
However, a definitive statement on the existence or non-existence of the
Higgs will require more data, and is not likely until later in 2012. 

The Standard Model is the theory that physicists use to describe the
behaviour of fundamental particles and the forces that act between them. It
describes the ordinary matter from which we, and everything visible in the
Universe, are made extremely well. Nevertheless, the Standard Model does not
describe the 96% of the Universe that is invisible. One of the main goals of
the LHC research program is to go beyond the Standard Model, and the Higgs
boson could be the key.

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Timothy I. Meyer, Ph.D.
Head, Strategic Planning & Communications
TRIUMF -- Accelerating Science for Canada |
    Un accélérateur de la démarche scientifique canadienne
4004 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 2A3  CANADA
Tel: 604-222-7674
Fax: 604-222-3791
Cell: 650-464-8955
E-mail: tmeyer at triumf.ca
WWW: http://www.triumf.ca
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