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arXiv:1207.7214hep-ex

Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The ATLAS Collaboration

Abstract

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The datasets used correspond to integrated luminosities of approximately 4.8 fb^-1 collected at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV in 2011 and 5.8 fb^-1 at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV in 2012. Individual searches in the channels H->ZZ^(*)->llll, H->gamma gamma and H->WW->e nu mu nu in the 8 TeV data are combined with previously published results of searches for H->ZZ^(*), WW^(*), bbbar and tau^+tau^- in the 7 TeV data and results from improved analyses of the H->ZZ^(*)->llll and H->gamma gamma channels in the 7 TeV data. Clear evidence for the production of a neutral boson with a measured mass of 126.0 +/- 0.4(stat) +/- 0.4(sys) GeV is presented. This observation, which has a significance of 5.9 standard deviations, corresponding to a background fluctuation probability of 1.7x10^-9, is compatible with the production and decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson.

arXiv comments
24 pages plus author list (38 pages total), 12 figures, 7 tables, revised author list, matches version to appear in Physics Letters B
Journal reference
Phys.Lett. B716 (2012) 1-29
DOI
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.020
Subjects
hep-exHigh Energy Physics, Experiment

On Hacker News

Linked by 9 identifiable commenters in 10 comments across 9 threads, from Aug 2012 to Oct 2026. Found in 1 HN submission from Aug 2012 to Aug 2012. Open submission discussions.

Comments linking this paper, per year.

Discussed in comments9 threads

  1. CERN and Mistral sign a statement of intent to establish a strategic partnership 1 comment

    • Using neural nets for signal background separation was pretty standard in ~2012 when the Higgs discovery was published. Was also pretty standard for CDF + DZero papers that came out before the LHC turned on. https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214 - The original ATLAS Higgs discovery…

      blueplanet200View on HNParent context

  2. DeepSeek Elastic Compute (DSec) 1 comment

    • This one [0] about the Higgs boson is hard to beat. Pages 25-32 are just full of around 5150 „authors“, pages 33-37 are their affilliations. [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214

      justinnkView on HNParent context

  3. Entities enabling scientific fraud at scale (2025) 1 comment

    • > physics tends to be much more reproducible than biology, and CS doubly-so. With physics I think there is a better culture of reproduction, but that is, I believe, due more to culture. That it is acceptable to "be slow". There's a high stress on being methodical and extremely…

      godelskiView on HNParent context

  4. Chemistry Nobel: Computational protein design and protein structure prediction 1 comment

    • Here's 8 densely printed pages of contributors to a discovery that lead to a Nobel prize: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.7214#page=26 Guess how many of them were included in the prize. It's a shame that the Nobel committee shies away from awarding it to institutions, but the…

      t_mannView on HNParent context

  5. Argonne National Lab is attempting to replicate LK-99 1 comment

    • The LHC has multiple teams that will replicate an experiment. The facility is so big that you have different groups. You also have different detectors (such as ATLAS and CMS) where you replicate the experiments because each one has a bit of difference. And except for the very…

      godelskiView on HNParent context

  6. Are Experts Real? 1 comment

    • That's a good question. You're right that a random grad student in a lab can't replicate, e.g., the discovery of the Higgs boson! However, at least for the Higgs (and I believe this is standard for most such large experiments), there were actually two different groups using two…

      losvedirView on HNParent context

  7. New boson appears in nuclear decay, could break standard model if confirmed 1 comment

    • >> ArXiv pre-prints are pretty normal in physics and math. Correct, and they are usually followed up by a published, peer-reviewed paper as well. I look forward to the day this one also gets reviewed and published. Higgs boson discovery pre-print: https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214…

      particleguyView on HNParent context

  8. P values are not as reliable as many scientists assume (2014) 1 comment

    • Here is one paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.7214v2.pdf Look at Figures 8 and 9. They show the p-value (at whatever level of data was collected when the paper was written) over the parameter space that is being searched. You can see that the values observed have a clear…

      jsprogrammerView on HNParent context

  9. Higgs Papers Out 2 comments

    • Link to the actual paper (pdf). http://arxiv.org/pdf/1207.7214v1.pdf

      ww520View on HNParent context

    • Better link to the arXiv abstract, ie http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7214 You also did not link the accompanying paper from CMS http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.7235

      cygxView on HNParent context

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