SCI/TECH: Higgs Boson Particle Possibly Found

A scientist says one of the most sought after particles in physics - the Higgs boson - may have been found, but the evidence is still relatively weak.

The particle may have been detected at an atom smashing facility in Switzerland.
The Higgs Boson is reputably the particle which explains why all other particles have mass and helps to complete the understanding of matter.
The evidence shows something that is similar to the Higgs Boson, but it is unclear as of yet. Calculations show that it has about 115 gigaelectronvolts.

The Higgs Boson has been the fundamental theory pivot of the Standard Model for the last 40+ years, given the name of 'God's Particle'.

BBC.co.uk


[Edited on 10-3-2004 by Banshee]

now THAT would be cool...definitely one of the "holy grails" of particle physicists!!

oh man, that is SO awesome. great find!!!

i hope it turns out to be the higgs boson. then we'll just have to figure out what all the dark matter in the universe is.

Wow, the discovery of the Higgs Boson would be amazing. I don't like 9% possibility of the detection being noise though. I think more confirmation is needed.

This is old news, folks. Just signed up to tell you that BBC is recycling news stories to fill column-inches. I'm sitting on site a few hundred yards from the beamline. LEP shut down a couple of years ago, and there's been no real news since then.

My group works exclusively on Higgs searches and more or less leads the effort here on experimental analysis in that direction. Sorry.

9% is nowhere near close enough. And the BBC story is wrong - Higgs doesn't really explain where the mass of all particles comes from. And "the God particle" is a stupid marketing ploy for funding agencies. There's a lot more to go. Higgs has been the fundamental theory hole, not pivot. If we get one, it'll round things off nicely.

Stay tuned for 2007-2008 (9?)

They're now saying, Higgs Boson Particle Possibly "Not" Found...

here:www.abovetopsecret.com...

(Reuters) - Scientists chasing a particle they believe may have played a vital role in creation of the universe indicated on Monday they were coming to accept it might not exist after all. But they stressed that if the so-called Higgs boson turns out to have been a mirage, the way would be open for advances into territory dubbed "new physics" to try to answer one of the great mysteries of the cosmos. The CERN research center, whose giant Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been the focus of the search, said it had reported to a conference in Mumbai that possible signs of the Higgs noted last month were now seen as less significant. A number of scientists from the center went on to make comments that raised the possibility that the mystery particle might not exist