This morning two results appeared on the arXiv:
There was a CERN seminar on 28/8/2018, which was available as a live webcast. The recording is now available here.
The seminar and papers are intended for a particle physics audience, so will likely be “tricky” for a general audience to follow. As the title suggests, what will be shown is the first clear measurement of the Higgs boson decay to bottom quarks, as well as a measurement of one of the ways it can be produced (VH – that is, produced together with a W or Z boson). Some explanation aimed at a more general reader is linked below.
This is a very challenging measurement, and the result of a determined campaign by both experiments, with many important contributions from theorists too. I have written about it a few times on this blog; in fact way of making the job more doable was the subject of my first post: The Physics behind the paper behind “Colliding Particles”.
Then there was a summary of some earlier results, with less data. These gave a strong indication that the decay was occurring, but fell short of the the gold standard “five sigma” we require for a clear discovery. This article also contains more information about why the measurement is important, why it is so difficult, and how it is done: Getting to the Bottom of the Higgs Boson.
Finally, I wrote something about the preliminary version of these results (along with results on the Higgs and the top quark): Two Quarks for Muster Higgs.
There will be some press releases and other links to come, which I will collect here when I can.
It is a very satisfying day for a lots people – many of whom are already be looking at the new data we are getting right now, so we can measure this more precisely…
Life and Physics 