Has the Higgs boson been discovered?
The standard model of particle physics describes the strong and electroweak interactions of fermions (spin-1/2), gauge bosons (spin-1) and a final vital ingredient--the spin-0 Higgs boson, which gives masses to the other particles. But the Higgs boson has yet to be discovered, and its own mass is not specified by the theory. There is some evidence (although statistically not very significant) for its detection at a mass of about 115 GeV/c2, from electron-positron interactions at LEP (the Large Electron Positron collider). Indirect methods can also be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs boson, because it affects other observable quantities (for example, the mass of the W boson and some measurable properties of the Z boson). An indirect determination of the Higgs boson mass from the most recent measurements of such quantities yields a value compatible with 115 GeV/c2, but with some important caveats arising from inconsistencies in the present data.
Renton
Peter
P
Department of Physics, Denys Wilkinson Building, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK. p.renton1@physics.ox.ac.uk