By Michael Banks
This is what a new boson looks like.
Presenting the latest results in the search for the Higgs boson at CERN this morning, Joe Incandela of the CMS experiment displayed a plot showing a clear bump in the data centred at around 125 GeV.
Incandela reported that CMS has indeed seen a new particle – that looks at the moment to be the Higgs boson – with a mass of 125 GeV. The result was given with a statistical significance of 5σ – a level that physicists call a “discovery”.
Shortly after Incandela’s talk, ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti also reported that its detector has seen something at 126 GeV with a statistical significance of 5σ.
So we have a new particle, but more effort will be needed to work out the details.