An announcement from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) was made this morning stating that they have found evidence of the existence of the Higgs Boson particle.
Joe Incandela of the CMS team and Fabiola Gianotti of the ATLAS team each methodically detailed the low-level analysis methods used to detect the particle, eventually leading to the confirmation of observing a new boson particle with a mass of 125.3 +- 0.6 GeV (126 GeV) at 4.9-sigma bringing much applause from the audience.
What is the Higgs Boson?
The Higgs boson is the only particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics that has not yet been detected by experiments. The Higgs mechanism does not predict the mass of the Higgs boson itself but rather a range of masses. Fortunately, the Higgs boson would leave a unique particle footprint depending on its mass. So scientists know what to look for and would be able to calculate its mass from the particles they saw in the detector.
This footprint is what has been detected today and has finally proven that this particle exists. CERN states that “finding the Higgs boson could be a gateway to discovering new physics, such as super-particles or dark matter.”
In detail analysis of the conference announcement can be found here:
Official Press Release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR17.12E.html