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Higgs Boson Discovery?

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11 years 8 months ago #94419 by wbean
Higgs Boson Discovery? was created by wbean
I'm hearing a lot of buzz around the Higgs this morning.
I haven't done any digging but it sounds to me like a discovery!

www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news...has-been-found.html#

Exciting!

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11 years 8 months ago #94420 by manic_dave
Replied by manic_dave on topic Re: Higgs Boson Discovery?
We are holding printing of several newspapers for this. Rumer is teh Americans found it 20 years ago but could not see it in the data, and CERN confirmed the discovery last week.

BIG NEWS!!

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11 years 8 months ago #94421 by manic_dave
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11 years 8 months ago #94436 by mjc
Replied by mjc on topic Re: Higgs Boson Discovery?
Some caution is still required.

For an official discovery of a new particle we need a detection at 5 sigma and a confirmation by a second independent team - also of five sigma.

Five sigma is a very high bar that the particle physicists set themselves.

What we have is a detection at 5 sigma and a confirmation at 4.9 sigma (all data).
(by choosing two optimal, selective, experimental data sets, the confirmation can be declared to be 5 sigma - but this isn't good science).
Therefore we, strictly, are not quite there. But to deny this detection would be getting very pinickity. I believe they have a new particle.

Question now is - is it the Higgs boson - or something closely related.

Jury is out - but I believe that we have achieved something spectacular.

Mark C.
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11 years 8 months ago #94438 by wbean
Replied by wbean on topic Re: Higgs Boson Discovery?
Hi Mark.

I'm not sure I understand sigma. Is it the different energy levels at which they perform the experiments at the LHC?

I remember the announcement last year when they said they had made certain detections, but that the lower energy level they were testing at indicated that the higgs might be detectable at higher energies. Or does the sigma number just relate to the kind of particles that they are colliding?

Am I making any sense?

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11 years 8 months ago #94444 by eansbro
Replied by eansbro on topic Re: Higgs Boson Discovery?
One sigma means the results could be random fluctuations in the data,
3 sigma counts as an observation
5-sigma result is a discovery.

Eamonn
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