CERN: Higgs boson breakthrough

The particle, which remains theoretical, is believed to give mass to all matter, helping explain why particles bunched together at the formation of the universe.

"This is a preliminary result, but we think it's very strong and very solid," said Joe Incandela, spokesman for one of the two teams carrying out experiments at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) at a press conference Wednesday in Geneva.

While more testing is needed to give more certainty to the discovery, CERN said in a statement that the discovered particle is "consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson." It could, however, also be a variant of the Higgs or a completely different subatomic particle.

Additional analysis of data collected at CERN is expected, with a conclusive release expected at the end of the month. Looking at the preliminary data, however, reveals a result of five sigma on the scale used by particle physicists to describe the certainty of a discovery. According to CERN, a one-sigma result could be a random fluctuation in data. A five sigma counts as a discovery.

"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle's properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our Universe."

CERN uses the Large Hadron Collider - a 16-mile, ring-shaped particle accelerator located on the Swiss-French border - for its tests.

mz/rc (AFP, Reuters)