CERN scientists find further signs of `God particle’ Higgs boson

Scientists at the CERN physics research centre near Geneva today said they have found further signs of Higgs boson, the elementary particle, which is believed to have been basic to the creation of the Universe following the Big Bang.

Scientists from ATLAS2 and CMS3 research groups, who presented their findings on the Standard Model Higgs boson (the so-called God Particle) at a seminar held at CERN1, said their results were based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences.

They, however, said the data was ''sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the elusive Higgs.''

''The main conclusion is that the Standard Model Higgs boson, if it exists, is most likely to have a mass constrained to the range 116-130 GeV by the ATLAS experiment, and 115-127 GeV by CMS. Tantalising hints have been seen by both experiments in this mass region, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery,'' CERN said in a press release.

''Higgs bosons, if they exist, are very short lived and can decay in many different ways,'' the release said, adding that they can be observed only in their decay rather than the Higgs itself.

While it is difficult to say whether ATLAS and CMS have discovered the Higgs boson, the updated results are generating a lot of interest in the particle physics community, CERN said.