Excitement in physics world as ‘particle consistent with Higgs boson’ is found

July 5, 2012 Editor 0

Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known by its French acronym CERN) announced on Wednesday that they have observed a new subatomic particle consistent with a Higgs boson. However, it is not yet clear what kind of Higgs boson has been found.

The experimental results have a significance level of five-sigma, meaning they are regarded as discoveries. (A one-sigma result could simply be a random fluctuation in the data while a three-sigma result counts as an observation.)

The Higgs boson was postulated as a means of providing mass to other subatomic particles, but until now it has not been detected experimentally. It cannot be detected directly, but must be identified indirectly, from detecting the predicted combinations of different particles it decays into.
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Categories: Science