Makes me wish I would have studied physics more.

So what's the status here? Was it confirmed found or what?

It's not confirmed by particle physics standards....but those are about the highest standards that scientists have. If the same amount of evidence was presented in a murder trial I think almost all juries would say guilty. In particle physics (and math) the standard is not just that there is no reasonable doubt...it's that most unreasonable doubt is eliminated as well.

I heard a rumor that when CMS refined their analysis, their significance went up to a level similar to that of ATLAS. But that's just a rumor...

The Higgs particle is as good as found

Eat it, Higgs haterz

As a science n00b what does this all mean then? Some people are saying this almost confirms string theory?

Those people are definitely wrong.

Not quite there yet.... I mean no new data has been collected since last year. All that was done the reanalysis of the same data. It sorta like me measuring my Di*k 100 times and claiming that among the 100 weiners I tested, mine is the biggest.

Lol, no. As the article states, from analyzing the original data they have been able to look at another possible form of Higgs decay, which allows them to reduce sigma (standard error) to 4.3. Measuring the same thing in many different ways is how scientist can reduce their overall average uncertainty. It's more like putting a ruler, a tape measure and a caliper up to your dick 100 times and stating very confidently you must be freezing.

That's the part one should have a problem with......fudging the numbers to make your results look more appealing.... As oppose to taking the hard route.... Generating more data and stick with the threshold you originally set out and perform the same vigorous analysis to see if the new data supports your previous claims. Thats is truely where the sigma should come from... Not this nonsense of...oh guess what we think this other fancy decay is also a form of higgins so we have even better results...yeyy we have found the elusive higgins..... What do you mean it's not the Higgs? Look at it both Higgs and Higgins start with "h"... Follow the same trajectory up to "G^2".... And we can even detect the end product "s"....














..you he tightest error bar you have seen

I was under the impression there was so much data generated during the original run that they simply hadn't processed and interpreted all of it yet, not that they were simply "fudging" numbers. Is that wrong?

Yeah this isn't what they are doing, also there is new data going to be generated at higher energies in the summer as well.

Eh, yes and no. CMS did recently add a new channel that in principle shouldn't have had much effect on their results (a vector-boson-fusion channel). But due to what appear to be upward statistical fluctuations, those channels ended up helping their significance.

One may recall that a month or so ago, CMS had much worse significance on their Higgs signal than ATLAS. Now, both are comparable. The new channel has a little bit to do with this. Also, having more time to calibrate measurements and improve analyses helps.

As others have said, there will be tons of new data later this year, so it's not like these guys have to keep squeezing power out of this already existing data. And the data we already have is EXTREMELY compelling. Higgs is an excellent bet.

so... would this discovery actually mean anything? in our lifetime? Any new possible technologies?

My understanding is that splitting the Higgs will yield unimaginably powerful energies if you can focus them into a beam not dissimilar to a laser, a 'haser' if you will, but I rake leaves for a living.