“LHC Experiments Show First Evidence of Rare Higgs Boson Decay Beyond Standard Model Predictions”

The evidence unearthed at CERN for a rare form of Higgs boson decay may be exactly what scientists need to prove the existence of particles beyond the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics — at least indirectly.

Speaking at the Large Hadron Collider Physics conference last week, researchers are working on a pair of CERN experiments – atlas And CMS – He said Combined data set provides first evidence of a Higgs boson decaying into a Z boson (neutral vector) Weak strength) and mattresses.

The Higgs boson decays in many ways. It can be split into four electrons, for example, or a pair of electron’s heavier cousins, muon. It’s also possible that the Higgs boson decays into two photons, but here’s where things start to get tricky and weird: the Higgs boson doesn’t decay into two photons right away.

Instead of going from the Higgs directly to the photon, “the decay process continues through intermediate ‘rings’ of ‘virtual’ particles that appear and disappear and cannot be detected directly. These virtual particles can include new particles that do not yet exist. – the undiscovered particle interacts with the Higgs boson.” “.

Like the decay into two photons, the Higgs boson decays into a Z boson and the photon passes through the same virtual particle ring, most likely undetected. That’s not all: the ATLAS/CMS results also show that the Standard Model of particle physics, which is supposed to be solved by the Higgs boson, actually refers to a theory that extends the Standard Model.

According to the Standard Model and CERN stated, about 0.15 percent of the Higgs boson should decay into Z bosons and photons, but data shows that it actually occurs in about 6.6 percent of the decay captured by the Large Hadron Collider. In theoretical models that extend the Standard Model to other particles, the Higgs Z boson/photon decay rate differs from the 0.15 percent predicted by the Standard Standard Model. In other words, something interesting and potentially unexplored is happening.

“Through a careful combination of the individual ATLAS and CMS results, we have taken another step forward to solving another Higgs boson mystery,” said ATLAS Physics Coordinator Pamela Ferrari.

Of course, there is also the certainty of this finding to evaluate, which is not as certain as the discovery of the Higgs boson itself by CERN scientists in 2012. Meanwhile the Higgs boson evidence has been given 5-Sigma statistical significance (roughly equivalent to a 1 in 3.5 million probability). that it would be found to be false), detection of the Z/photon boson modulated only by 3,4-Sigma – still a very low probability of being an incorrect observation, but bigger than detection of the Higgs boson itself.

In other words, science continues to hope that more Higgs observations will help explain everything. “This study is a robust test of the Standard Model,” said CMS Physics. “By running the ongoing third LHC and future High Luminosity Collider, we will be able to increase the accuracy of these tests and investigate the even more rare Higgs. rot.” Coordinator Florencia Canelli. ®