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skycat
6/4/2007, 03:54 PM
did you find the Higgs boson in the last couple of weeks?

You can let us know here. We'll keep it secret until you can publish.

SoonerInKCMO
6/4/2007, 04:25 PM
Years ago I read "The God Particle". About all I remember from it though is that it's about the Higgs boson. :(

Ike
6/4/2007, 04:28 PM
I don't work in the higgs group, so no, I haven't found it yet...but then again, I ain't looking for it.

Ike
6/4/2007, 04:30 PM
Years ago I read "The God Particle". About all I remember from it though is that it's about the Higgs boson. :(
I've heard of that book but haven't read it. It's really an unfair characterization of the Higgs.

Yeah, it's important to find, but if and when it is found, it will probably raise more questions than it answers. At least we hope so. If not, we'll all just have to pack up and go home.

skycat
6/4/2007, 04:37 PM
It's the last particle predicted by the standard model to have not been found. It's supposed to be the key as to why some particles have mass and others don't.

And there's a rumor that it's been found at Fermi.

Ike
6/4/2007, 04:40 PM
It's the last particle predicted by the standard model to have not been found. It's supposed to be the key as to why some particles have mass and others don't.

And there's a rumor that it's been found at Fermi.

There have always been rumors.


And the rumors you speak of are the result of a couple of somewhat loose lipped people at "that other experiment" across the ring from us spouting off in their blogs. From what I can tell, they "may" have evidence for it, but its anything but a slam dunk. However, if we combine results from our experiment and theirs, it may become significant enough to claim discovery.

Maybe. If the things that are being seen are not just the products of statistical fluctuations and people seeing what they wanted to see in the first place.

skycat
6/4/2007, 04:45 PM
There have always been rumors.

Yeah, but this is the first one to reach me in my little cubicle in Austin.:D

Ike
6/4/2007, 04:46 PM
Yeah, but this is the first one to reach me in my little cubicle in Austin.:D

see my edited post below...

skycat
6/4/2007, 05:02 PM
Well, it does seem a little conveinent to make this discovery with the LHC looming ever closer on the horizon. I don't doubt that there are some nervous post-docs over there right now.

Frozen Sooner
6/4/2007, 05:10 PM
I don't work in the higgs group, so no, I haven't found it yet...but then again, I ain't looking for it.

Well, you know what they say. You always find Higgs boson when you're not looking for Higgs boson.

Ike
6/4/2007, 05:10 PM
Well, it does seem a little conveinent to make this discovery with the LHC looming ever closer on the horizon. I don't doubt that there are some nervous post-docs over there right now.

heh. Well, to be honest, there are a lot of us that are skeptical that it will be found at all at FNAL. However, with the amount of data that we are taking at the moment (way above and beyond what was initially expected) it's certainly possible.


Besides, we'll still have at least a year if not 2 years I reckon after the LHC turns on to beat them to the Higgs if we can find it here at all. It will take them that long to understand their detectors well enough to find a signal in all the mountains of data they are going to be pulling. A lot of LHC people are, in my opinion, a little overly optimistic about whats going to happen there in the first year or two...This is primarily (again, my opinion) because they are still only working with monte carlo simulation. When that first bit of data rolls in, they are probably going to look at it and go "What the hell is this crap!?"

crawfish
6/4/2007, 09:02 PM
The terrorists stole and and are holding it for ransom.

Ike
6/5/2007, 10:48 AM
http://www.slate.com/id/2167563/

So apparently these are different rumors than I was hearing before, and apparently involve my experiment. I suppose it's possible. I have only recently tried keeping up with the goings on around here since I was only able to take my blinders off from writing and defending my thesis.

However, with respect to these, I confirm nothing and deny everything.

OCUDad
6/5/2007, 11:01 AM
I confirm nothing and deny everything.As close to certainty as any physicist is likely to get.

skycat
6/5/2007, 11:12 AM
http://www.slate.com/id/2167563/

So apparently these are different rumors than I was hearing before, and apparently involve my experiment. I suppose it's possible. I have only recently tried keeping up with the goings on around here since I was only able to take my blinders off from writing and defending my thesis.

However, with respect to these, I confirm nothing and deny everything.

Yeah, that's where I first saw it.