I don’t know anything beyond that. Other than a physicist just tipped me off a major announcement would be forthcoming in the near future and there’s a lot of press speculation on it. Prepare for endless reviews of the God Particle…
Update: Here’s what I’ve been told “two experiments see a big enhancement in 2-photon production, which fits perfectly with what one expects for a Higgs at 125 GeV. The total significance is 4.2 sigma, which is just short of the 5 sigma needed for the announcement of an official discovery.”
If you had to hazard a guess, do you think this will be hints of a Higgs signal at the LHC’s higher energies or ruling out the Higgs at an even broader range of energies?
I think they’ve found something, physics world is going nuts right now.
You would think those big hosons would be easier to spot.
Let’s hope we get some exciting news soon!
I just grabbed my copy of Leon Lederman’s The God Particle and opened it to the last lines of his imaginary conversation with Democritus. I’m wondering if Leon will append a bit of salient dialog in the very near future.
The end of their conversation bears repeating here:
Democritus: I must see this new machine*. And this particle. The Higgs boson — not a very poetic name.
Lederman: I call it the God Particle.
D: Better. Though I prefer a lowercase “g”. But tell me: you’re an experimenter. What physical evidence have you amassed so far for this Higgs particle?
L: None. Zero. In fact, outside of Pure Reason, the evidence would convince most sensible physicists that the Higgs does not exist.
D: Yet you persist.
L: The negative evidence is only preliminary. Besides, we have an expression in this country . . .
D: Yes?
L: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
D: Yogi Bera?
L: Yup.
D: A genius.
*At the time of writing, Lederman was referring to the ill-fated Superconducting Super Collider.
But how can I use this to destroy my enemies? Someone needs to get to work on that straight away.