Higgs boson results from LHC 'get even stronger'

[hue]

Source: BBC News

The Higgs boson-like particle whose discovery was announced on 4 July looks significantly more certain to exist.

The particle has been the subject of a decades-long hunt as the last missing piece of physics' Standard Model, explaining why matter has mass.

Now one Higgs-hunting team at the Large Hadron Collider report a "5.9 sigma" levels of certainty it exists.
That equates to a one-in-300 million chance that the Higgs does not exist and the results are statistical flukes.

The formal threshold for claiming the discovery of a particle is a 5-sigma level - equivalent to a one-in-3.5 million chance.
That is the level that was claimed by the team behind Atlas, one of the LHC's Higgs-hunting experiments, during the 4 July announcement. The other, known as CMS, claimed results between 4.9 and 5 sigma.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19076355

[Evasporque]

1. OMG 5.9 SIGMA LEVEL!11!! HUGH!!11!! SERIES!!!1

That is way better than 5.8 sigma....

[Iggo]

6. That's what I was thinking!

[hue]

11. When the announcement was made the sigma level was 4.9 and 5.0 n/t

[mpala007]

13. Funny you would say that

According to my calculations
Sigma 5.8 is 1 in 300 million
Sigma 5.9 is 1 in 550 million
unless both Excel 2010
& my HP 50g are wrong

[Posteritatis]

15. Doubling one's confidence in knowing something's usually significant, yes. (nt)

[harun]

2. Might explain some of the "how" in terms of mass but not the "why". That is a much

much bigger question.

[GodlessBiker]

4. Do you mean, Why does the Higgs particle give mass to other particles as they move ...

through space-time?

I think that's like asking why physical laws are the way they are. A tough question, to be sure, and maybe not a scientific question at this point.

[Onlooker]

3. Phew, I was worried there for awhile n/t

[Festivito]

12. They had to overcome inertia and mass hysteria. /nt

[4th law of robotics]

5. In fact it seems to be gaining mass and energy at an exponential rate

seemingly drawing both from thin air.

Scientists working on the project have so far not commented on this phenomenon as most have committed suicide or returned home to "spend their last few days with their families".

[Raster]

8. new t-shirt: Switzerland was here!

[grantcart]

7. Is this going to be on the test?

[grahamhgreen]

9. 5.9 SIGMA! I am now using this for all of my affirmative speculations! Awesome!

[yellowcanine]

10. "Higgs Boson" would be a great name for a rock band.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Science is FUCKING COOL.

I don't give a shit what anyone else thinks, I want to learn as much as possible about the Universe we live in. And then some.