Higgs could be found before Christmas!

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Harbles
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by Harbles » Thu Dec 01, 2011 1:51 pm

And a nice way to start the Christmas party season at CERN.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/ ... c-findings

"The runup to Christmas looks exciting for the Large Hadron Collider at Cern near Geneva. Staff at the laboratory have arranged a special seminar on Tuesday 13 December at which the latest results in the search for the Higgs boson will be made public. The presentation is due to happen directly after the lab's scientific policy committee has convened one of its regular meetings behind closed doors."

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CharmQuark
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by CharmQuark » Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:24 pm

Very nice article!!! :D
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Harbles
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by Harbles » Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:39 pm

And rumors we hear rumors.

http://blog.vixra.org/2011/12/02/higgs- ... o-125-gev/

"A rumour that reached our comment section suggests that a signal for the Higgs boson has been seen at 125 GeV with 2-3 sigma significance."

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CharmQuark
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by CharmQuark » Fri Dec 02, 2011 10:06 pm

Oh but we do love the rumors ;) that is what keeps it exciting hehe.
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chelle
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by chelle » Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:50 am

CharmQuark wrote:Oh but we do love the rumors ;) that is what keeps it exciting hehe.
Judging from the rumors it sounds like they haven't found a thing. They have narrowed the region where the Higgs could be hiding, or one could say that the chances of finding it have become slim.

Aside from setting records it seems that the LHC is starting to fall into the category of the Michelson–Morley experiment:
"After all this thought and preparation, the experiment became what might be called the most famous failed experiment to date."
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson– ... experiment
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DCWhitworth
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by DCWhitworth » Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:29 pm

Not sure I entirely agree that they've found nothing.

Sergio Bertolucci - "I think we may get indications that are not consistent with its non-existence". And he should know.
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chelle
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by chelle » Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:34 pm

DCWhitworth wrote:Not sure I entirely agree that they've found nothing.

Sergio Bertolucci - "I think we may get indications that are not consistent with its non-existence
I guess its a sign-off conference for the winter period closure, and an "I hope to see y'all again next year"-motivational-speech that we will get to see, talking about the misty 2,5 - 3 sigma results.

What will happen with Peter Higgs and his boson if they don't find it by the summer of next year, same thing as Ivan, quietly leaving the scene ...

Sorry for being a bit sinister, but it might be my last chance ever to speculate on such things :mrgreen:
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DCWhitworth
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by DCWhitworth » Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:56 pm

Well I'm a bit uncertain about the exclusions. How can they exclude areas at "95% certainty" ? That's a way lower level of certainty than they require for discovery. Why the large disparity between the two numbers ? Presumably something I'm not understanding about the statistics.
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by chelle » Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:38 pm

The numbers:
the Atlas team reported a 2.3 sigma bump in their data that could be a Higgs boson weighing 126GeV, while the CMS team reported a 1.9 sigma Higgs signal at a mass of around 124GeV.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... sfeed=true
Too small or big enough to be a worthy cliffhanger?
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chelle
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by chelle » Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:37 pm

I just checked Ethan Siegel's blog, Starts with a Bang and he's pretty confident that they are on to something:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang ... er_the.php
It still isn't good enough to claim discovery, but it's striking enough that if you asked me to bet, I'd bet you even money that they confirm a Higgs somewhere around 126 GeV by the end of 2013.
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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by adam_jeff » Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:35 am

ATLAS asked for 20 fb-1 in order to confirm (that's how much data they would need, if the Higgs is really around 125GeV, to get a 5 sigma discovery) which is at the optimistic end of the 2012 run.

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Re: Higgs could be found before Christmas!

Post by rudolfst » Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:35 pm

I found the recording of the webcast where the presentations about the Higgs boson by the ATLAS and CMS experiments were given of 13 december.
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1406786

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