Standard Model Higgs signal keeps getting stronger

ATLAS and CMS release their latest results

By Hamish Johnston

If there was any doubt in your mind that physicists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have found a particle best described as a Standard Model Higgs boson, two preprints uploaded yesterday by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations should put you at ease.

The preprints provide the latest analysis of the data gathered by the two experiments. While much of this information was presented at a special seminar at CERN on 4 July, the preprints do include some new information.

In particular, the statistical significance of the ATLAS result seems to have gone from 5.0σ to 5.9σ. In particle physics, anything greater than 5.0σ is considered a "discovery". The significance of the CMS result seems to remain the same as it was on 4 July at 5.0σ.

Both experiments continue to suggest that the particle they have discovered bears a striking resemblance to a Higgs boson as described by the Standard Model of particle physics.

You can read the ATLAS preprint here and the CMS preprint is here.