A new particle, maybe?

[russell]

[TimberWolf]

So ATLAS's bump may not be due to Higgs particles, after all, but instead down to something mundane, such as an error in the analysis

Elusive Higgs slips from sight again - physics-math - 04 May 2011 - New Scientist

Maybe just another 'fundon' then.

[OwlHoot]

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » Fermilab’s data peak that causes excitement

Oooooh.

It's not the higgs, and it's not supersymmetry. So what is it?

Apparently they have enough data to "confirm" it and the LHC should confirm it soonish, if it's really there.

Some people are joking that this new particle, if it exists, should be called the "fundon".

Unfortunately Fermilab is about to shut down, on the grounds (disputed by some) that everything it could find will be found more easily at LHC.

So to try and keep things going, they've been publishing these graphs every now and then with slight humps they say indicate new particles. But the anomalies are probably just faint resonances or even measurement error.

Mind you, the Fermilab guys did recently find what looks like clear evidence of asymmetry of the top-quark pair production, which could be just as interesting as a new particle to add to the zoo, if not more so.

[Mich the Tester]

It's not the higgs, and it's not supersymmetry. So what is it?

It's one of my missing socks. We only see 4% of the known universe, and 96% is said to be 'dark matter'. Dark matter is actually an accumulation of lost sock material, stolen from men's houses by the sock monster, and dropped in a black hole, which ejects the crushed sock material and spreads it around the close to the speed of light in the form of tiny, imperceptible particles known as footons, which are different and quite distinct from futons, which have nothing to do with particle physics.

[TimberWolf]

I love 'unexplained' physics stories. The last proper good one was dark energy, over 10 years ago.

How lucky this find should come just when the lab is about to get canned; perhaps it may get them a reprieve.

Do you think they are contractors?

I noticed that too, but it is being examined at other locations, by sifting through existing data. Not sure how often these 3 sigma events occur. 1 in 1000 could mean every nanosecond or every decade. A 5 sigma event is when they start getting over 1 in million confident, although they seem pretty excited already.

[Clever Hans]

I love 'unexplained' physics stories. The last proper good one was dark energy, over 10 years ago.

How lucky this find should come just when the lab is about to get canned; perhaps it may get them a reprieve.

Do you think they are contractors?

[PAH]

So what is it?

My money's on it being a member of the Andromeda Strain

Welcome to earth. Ignore us, we're just dumb monkeys bashing rocks together.

[scooterscot]

WHS

Feynman described accelerator physics as ‘bashing clocks together at nearly the speed of light, and from the broken parts that fall out, trying to understand what a clock is and how it works.’

[Cliphead]

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » Fermilab’s data peak that causes excitement

Oooooh.

It's not the higgs, and it's not supersymmetry. So what is it?

Apparently they have enough data to "confirm" it and the LHC should confirm it soonish, if it's really there.

That really is quite exciting

[amcdonald]

Has anyone asked Gordon Freeman ?

[doodab]

symmetry breaking » Blog Archive » Fermilab’s data peak that causes excitement

Oooooh.

It's not the higgs, and it's not supersymmetry. So what is it?

Apparently they have enough data to "confirm" it and the LHC should confirm it soonish, if it's really there.