What If The Boson Is Not The Higgs ?

[Rade]

This is from the CERN web page. They make it clear that there is a possibility that the boson just announced as being discovered at 125.3 GeV (+- 0.6 at 4.9 sigma) may or may not be the Higgs Boson.

 

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FROM CERN:

The new particle observed at about 125 GeV is compatible, within the limited statistical accuracy, with being the SM Higgs boson. However, more data are required to measure its properties such as decay rates in the various channels (γγ, ZZ, WW, bb and ττ) and ultimately its spin and parity, and hence ascertain whether it is indeed the SM Higgs boson or the result of new physics beyond the standard model.

 

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OK, for fun, let us assume future research at CERN in 2012-2013 will suggest the new boson is NOT the Higgs. So, what would it be ?

Edited July 5, 2012 by Rade

[CraigD]

I (and apparently the other 77 viewer of this thread) have been bewildered trying to come up with an answer to the title question “what if the boson is not the Higgs?”

 

Finally, today, I encountered this Discovery.com article pointed out this arXiv preprint wherein some physicist have written about 20 pages exploring what, if not the Higgs, LHC:ATLAS and CMS may have discovered.

 

Their bottom line (or top line, as that’s how these papers are usually written) is that it’s most likely the “Standard Model Higgs”, but that some “Higgs imposters” remain not ruled out.

 

Not easy reading, nor quick, (for me, at least), but better than nothing.

[Guest MacPhee]

This is from the CERN web page. They make it clear that there is a possibility that the boson just announced as being discovered at 125.3 GeV (+- 0.6 at 4.9 sigma) may or may not be the Higgs Boson.

 

---

 

FROM CERN:

The new particle observed at about 125 GeV is compatible, within the limited statistical accuracy, with being the SM Higgs boson. However, more data are required to measure its properties such as decay rates in the various channels (γγ, ZZ, WW, bb and ττ) and ultimately its spin and parity, and hence ascertain whether it is indeed the SM Higgs boson or the result of new physics beyond the standard model.

 

---

 

OK, for fun, let us assume future research at CERN in 2012-2013 will suggest the new boson is NOT the Higgs. So, what would it be ?

 

It might be a different "flavor", or "color" of the Higgs Boson. Or perhaps there's a "Top" Higgs, and a "Bottom" one. Even a "Charmed" version.

 

Or more likely, it's all total gibberish.

[Rade]

Finally, today, I encountered this Discovery.com article pointed out this arXiv preprint wherein some physicist have written about 20 pages exploring what, if not the Higgs, LHC:ATLAS and CMS may have discovered.

Thank you very much for your time to find this.

 

[EDIT] Here is link to more papers on Higgs boson by the lead author, Ian Low of Argonne National Lab.

 

http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+ea+low,+ian

 

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From the above preprint by Low et al. is this conclusion, which clearly suggests the possibility that what CERN has found may not be the Standard Model Higgs boson...oh, science is so much fun

 

"As we have seen, precise measurements of the ratios DW/Z and D/Z offer a clean way of distinguishing a triplet imposter from a Higgs boson, but currently the uncertainties in these quantities are too large, and the central values actually favor the triplet imposter."

Edited July 12, 2012 by Rade

[Aethelwulf]

I was dogmatic that they would not find it five years ago. Now.. I seem to be put in my place... if it was not for some. John Ellis indeed as well, is keeping an open mind that the Boson is in fact not a Higgs. Not hard to imagine, but has much space been made for this particle over others that have been found? No doubt in some sadistic sense, the Higgs Boson is a particle which requires a considerable amount of effort to try and prove which is like moving mountains even a yard.

[phision]

 

OK, for fun, let us assume future research at CERN in 2012-2013 will suggest the new boson is NOT the Higgs. So, what would it be ?

 

A random clumping of matter with a particular mass/energy! The future will POSSIBLY involve CERN needing more funding to investigate further.. My understanding, cynical as it is, is that this was near the upper limit of what LHC was able to discover, and as such represented a last best chance for a discovery.