New preliminary results presented at the Moriond Conference today indicate that the new particle discovered last July by researchers at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is most likely the Higgs Boson.
The Higgs Boson, popularly known as "the God Particle", is theorized in the Standard Model of Particle Physics to be the particle that confers mass. Understanding the properties and behavior of this elusive particle would revolutionize particle physics.
The ATLAS and CMS collaborations, the teams who made the discovery, have discovered that the particle they discovered last year likely has zero 'spin' and positive parity, which fits theoretical values that describe the Higgs Boson.
However, while it seems that the existence of the Higgs has been confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt, it remains to be seen which type of the elusive particle researchers have discovered. If the Standard Model reflects reality, there should only be one type of Higgs. If a rival theory called supersymmetry is more accurate, there could be as many as five types of Higgs particles in existence. So far, the evidence points toward the Standard Model Higgs, but further analysis is needed.
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