The discussion centers on the number of observations related to the Higgs boson prior to its official announcement in 2012. It is confirmed that both the ATLAS and CMS experiments recorded approximately 150-200 events of Higgs decaying into two photons and around 5 events of Higgs decaying into four leptons. The significance of these observations is tied to statistical analysis, where a five sigma level of certainty is achieved based on the signal strength, detector performance, and background noise. The 2011 dataset hinted at a new particle at 125 GeV, but additional data from 2012 was essential for confirmation.
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Yes, I'm aware that 'taking a photo of a particle' does not have the same properties as 'taking a photo of a human'. Nevertheless, scientists need to rev up their particle accelerator and obtain data. Many of these acquisitions of data do not contribute to the existence of the Higgs but some of them do. So how many were there for the Higgs. In the OP I mentioned that I read somewhere that for the top quark that number was 37.Orodruin said:You do not take photos of elementary particles. You observe their interactions and effects in particle detectors.
gamow99 said:I read somewhere
We knew what to look for the whole time. The mass was unknown, but that simply means you look at all possible mass values.fresh_42 said:By analyzing the data of previous collisions, have there been found indications of Higgs prior to 2012, after the physicists knew what to look for?
How much data you need depends on the signal strength, the detector performance, the amount of background, and a bit of randomness. The experiments updated their results once in a while with more data, at the time where the significance was close to 5 standard deviations they decided to make a press conference. A few events more or less wouldn't have changed that.gamow99 said:Further, why would x number of photos yield a five sigma degree of certainty but not x - 1?
Excellent answer. Thanks very much for your help. This is exactly what I wanted to hear.mfb said:We knew what to look for the whole time. The mass was unknown, but that simply means you look at all possible mass values.
The 2011 dataset was sufficient to get a hint of a possible new particle at 125 GeV already, but more collisions (from 2012) were needed to clearly confirm that it is a new particle.
At the time of the Higgs discovery, ATLAS and CMS each had about 150-200 Higgs to two photon decays and ~5 Higgs to four lepton decays in the dataset. For individual events, you can never be sure what caused them, finding the Higgs and distinguishing it from background requires a statistical analysis.How much data you need depends on the signal strength, the detector performance, the amount of background, and a bit of randomness. The experiments updated their results once in a while with more data, at the time where the significance was close to 5 standard deviations they decided to make a press conference. A few events more or less wouldn't have changed that.
This Insights article discusses some of the concepts