Higgs boson corralled by CERN detectors

An international physics team reports a narrowing of hiding places for the elusive physics particle, the Higgs boson.

Before a packed audience, Europe's CERN laboratory hosted a Tuesday briefing on the results of two Large Hadron Collider experiments that smashed protons (the positively-charged sub-atomic particles at the center of atoms) together at near-light speeds to look for signs of the long-sought "God Particle". The teams report two detector experiments have narrowed the range of energies at which the particle emerges from proton smashups to 115 to 130 Gigaelectronvolts (a measurement of particle energy equivalent to a mass of .000000000000000205 to .000000000000000232 kilograms for the particles, for anyone keeping score).

"The window for the Higgs Boson gets smaller and smaller. However, it's still alive," said CERN director Rolf-Dieter Heuer at the conclusion of the briefing. The Higgs boson (named after University of Edinburgh physicist Peter Higgs) provides the mass of other sub-atomic particles that cause electromagnetism and some radioactive decay in the so-called "standard model" of particle physics.

We'll wrap up reactions to the announcement here, starting with physicist Frank Close, author of The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe:

"Interesting and tantalizing, there's definitely enough evidence to say there is likely something there, but it's too soon to say this was the day they found the Higgs boson," Close says. "It may say that in the textbooks 20 years from now, but we have to have the proof."

Detecting a Higgs boson with the energy range reported by the CERN Large Hadron Collider experiments, Close says, would be encouraging news for theorists looking for "supersymmetry" particles that serve as heavier counterparts to known ones, and which might explain the still-unidentified "Dark Matter" seen to affect the gravity of galaxies in astronomical observations.

Caltech's Sean Carroll on the Cosmic Variance website:

"It's like rushing to the tree on Christmas morning, ripping open a giant box, and finding a small note that says 'Santa is on his way! Hang in there!'," Caroll says.

"We have a strong theoretical bias that the Higgs exists and is somewhere close to this mass range, so it's completely reasonable to think that we are seeing hints (tantalizing ones!) that it's there, but wait-and-see is still the right attitude."

Initially pessimistic after a quick head-count showed doubts among his colleagues, Rutgers physicist Matt Strassler says he is now more positive about the results on his Of Particular Significance website:

"What we saw today is probably compatible with a Standard Model-like Higgs at about 125 GeV (Gigaelectronvolts)," Strassler says. It is also consistent with random jumps in the detector readings, he adds, "perhaps combined with a subtle technical problem in one or another analysis."

"And the only way to find out which of these two is the truth is to gather a lot more data in 2012. Period."