Higgs Signal Seen at CERN

CERN researchers speaking at the seminar (happening now - watch at http://webcast.web.cern.ch/webcast/) have reported on a signal recorded by the ATLAS experiment that is indicative of the Higgs boson.

The results appear to show a Higgs particle decaying into two photons.

The signal is far bigger than the calculated background signal (i.e. it's very unlikely to have occurred purely by coincidence). This is the clearest evidence so far of a Higgs particle.

The signal has been detected at an energy of 126 GeV - a plausible estimate of the Higgs mass. Further results from ATLAS (currently being discussed) show a signal at a similar energy for the decay of the Higgs boson into leptons. This second piece of evidence backs up the significance of the strong 126 GeV two-photon-decay signal

Stay tuned to find out how conclusive the findings are. The big question is whether the CMS experiment has observed the same signals.