Not sure where else to post this - so here is as good as any.

How widespread is the rumor that the people running the Tevatron at Fermilab have found the Higgs Boson? There is a story in the online magazine Slate -
http://www.slate.com/id/2167563/

This would put a bit of a damper on the LHC.

The Slate story references some blog entries -
http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2007/05/...-b-excess-too/
http://superweak.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/rumors/

Here is one report:
The scandalous gossip swirling around the collider physics world at the moment is that the DØ experiment at the Tevatron has seen Something Interesting and Statistically Significant, and will announce this Real Soon Now. The 4-bottom-tagged-jets channel keeps getting mentioned, but it’s unclear if the interesting feature is a characteristic of the 4b signal, or of 2 bottom jets within the event. (In other words, it might be a resonance that cascades to 4 bottom quarks, or production of a Higgs and something that decays to 2 bottom quarks, or …) Not being a DØ member, I have no idea whether any of this is true, but it’s sufficient to have excited a number of CDF people into checking if they’ve missed something.

Hi taranaki, welcome to BAUT. This would be the correct forum. And thanks for some particle physics gossip, it will be weeks before People magazine reports it.

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Actually, it might not be so bad for some European physicists, as there is a lot of collaboration between scientists at CERN and scientists at Fermilab.

For instance, Dr. Brian Cox works in CERN at the LHC AND on the D0 experiment, I believe. I think he'd be up for a Nobel either way, right?

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I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

The author of the Slate piece, James Owen Weatherall, has posted more about the Higgs rumors on the Stevens IT blog.

The guy who posted first about the Higgs rumors has posted some more, clarifying his earlier post. He works at Fermilab - the name of his blog is "Charm &c. Or, fun from the third floor of Wilson". Wilson is the main building at Fermilab.

I am going to Fermilab on Wednesday to hear a talk by 2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics, George Smoot. Topic is " Relics of Creation: The Big Bang, The COBE Satellite & Cosmic Microwave Background."

If I see a lot of very happy nerds, that may be confirmation of the rumors. . Pamela Gay was at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Hawaii last week. Maybe she will have some good gossip for next week's Astronomy Cast.

From the sound of the blog post, the guy was refuting 'Slate's idea that the Tevatron event (if it were real) corresponded to the identification of only 1 Higgs particle and staid confirmation of the Standard model. Apparantly, the imminent death of particle physics as a discipline has been greatly exaggerated!

Correction: Dr. Cox apparantly no longer works for Fermilab, so he'd be screwed if the rumors are true.

Oh well.

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The dose makes the poison--Paracelsus (1493-1541) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

Intelligence may not be clearly defined, but you know stupid when you see it--Noclevername

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Taranaki. It would seem unlikely that they have the Higgs at that energy. Previous excitement over the resonance at ~ 160 Gev/c ²...is most likely a single Z as a W+/W- pair...160Gev/c².... This one, at ~ 182.4, is most likely a Z/anti Z pair (twice ~91.18 Gev/c ²)

see;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_and_Z_bosons
Pete

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A first rate theory predicts.
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There have been some blog posts by people who should have pretty good knowledge about what is going on in the D0 Experiment.

Gordon Watts is a member of D0 and says "Enough Already!"

Another comment from Charm &c. He/she is at Fermilab but not a member of D0.

Offtopic: I am so [language] jealous. I didn't find out about the lecture until after it sold out. On the other hand, I am pretty happy to know that a lecture like this would sell out.

I also have heard that it is just a rumor, and that this same rumor has been circulating among the particuliterati for months.

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The dose makes the poison--Paracelsus (1493-1541) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

Intelligence may not be clearly defined, but you know stupid when you see it--Noclevername

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Paracelsus. Particuliterati? I like that. Do they have a magazine? lol pete

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A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

Yes. It's called 'Physics Review'.

Particuliterati are far more intelligent than glitterati...

__________________
The dose makes the poison--Paracelsus (1493-1541) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

Intelligence may not be clearly defined, but you know stupid when you see it--Noclevername

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Paracelsus. Not JETP? Some Russian intrigue might spice up the business? Pete.

__________________
A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

Nyet... EPJ!

European intrigue so MUCH sexier...

P

__________________
The dose makes the poison--Paracelsus (1493-1541) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

I don't know. That's why I'm asking--Noclevername

Intelligence may not be clearly defined, but you know stupid when you see it--Noclevername

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge--Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Paracelsus. Da! ......Pete

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A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

I've read that "Fermilab physicists suggest the odds of Tevatron detecting the Higss boson are between 50% and 95%, depending on its mass."

Any substance in that statement?

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mugs. They'd be only too happy to find it. They simply haven't yet. It takes at least ten sightings to thrill a journal editor, and it ought to be corroborated by another lab. Hasn't happened yet. Might. pete

__________________
A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov

And when someone suggests a large range for a chance, you know he's getting his numbers from the place colloquially lacking in sunlight.

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While they are both are saying it is not the Higgs, what I do find intresting is that they both confirm the detection of something new, and both seem to be leaning towards it being a supersymetry type of event.

If that is how it pans out, then it's definately a great discoverey.

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This Higgs Boson particle is also called the God Particle...

Bebe

Cabeus crater?

Nick

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Well it's always in the last place look.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that name based on the story (fact) around Amerca's 'super conducting super collider'. When the project came before congress a senator asked one of the scientists, 'will this accelerator see the face of god?'[sic]. And the sientist (honestly) answerd 'Senator, it will see the higgs boson'.[sic]

(or did that name came from somewhere else?)

No it is based on a book by Leon Lederman called The God Particle.

Quite a few people wish he had chosen a different title. But it is a very good book.

According to Leon Lederman in the book he says that he wanted to entitle it something that the publisher would not accept and that this board will not permit me to write, so it got shortened to the present title.

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Is that how you describe Wikipedia? (note the link here matches the one to which you were referring in your disparaging comment).

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"Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold- bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief." - James Russell Lowell

and of course there's the offshoot group of dyslexic physicists searching frantically for the DOG particle too.


SEE:http://www.techradar.com/blogs/artic...-world--464082

__________________
A third rate theory forbids.
A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
A. Lomonosov