Leaked CERN video shows glimpse of the Higgs

Jacob Aron, reporter

(Image: CERN)

With all eyes on CERN in advance of tomorrow's Higgs update it appears that someone has slipped up and given us a sneak peak. In a video posted on CERN's website but dated tomorrow, Joe Incandela, spokesperson for the CMS experiment, confirms that they have found a new particle, but stops short of calling it the Higgs.

"We've observed a new particle. We have quite strong evidence that there's something there, so to ascertain its properties is still going to take us a little bit of time."

CERN has told the Telegraph that this one of several videos they have made, for each possible outcome, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow for full confirmation.

In the video, Incandela goes on to say the particle decays to two photons, meaning it is a boson, a particle with integer spin, and its mass is roughly 130 times that of the proton. That would put it at around 121 GeV, while the Higgs is expected to show up at 125 GeV - but Incandela's wording is loose enough that the Higgs confirmed tomorrow could be closer to that figure.

He also calls it "one of the biggest discoveries in our field in the last 30 to 40 years", adding "I'm extremely tired at the moment, so I may not appear to be as excited as I really am, but the significance of this observation could be very very great."

We also don't yet know whether this particle is consistent with the Standard Model Higgs, or if it doesn't exactly match up. "If that's the case, then we have something really quite profound here," says Incandela. "It could be a gateway, if you like, to the next phase of exploring the deepest fabric of the universe, which is pretty profound when you think about it."

These results are still preliminary, however. Incandela compares the amount of data recorded to the number of grains of sand that would fill an Olympic swimming pool, while only "tens, or dozens" represent the observations that could be the Higgs. "We've just got enough data to say it's definitely there and it's very unlikely to go away."

There is still the possibility this observation is not the Higgs, however. "It may be something which we often call a Higgs-like particle," says Incandela. "If it doesn't match in a significant way then we may be able to find that out this year."

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/20f91012/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A70Cleaked0Ecern0Evideo0Eshows0Eglimps0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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