My day started at 2am, when I got up to get in the queue for the main auditorium at CERN, where the real deal would be happening (as in, if I actually got a seat in the auditorium, I'd be watching the real thing, not a webcast!). I knew there would already be people there, because some grad students actually got there at 11:30pm to camp out. But I did not expect there to be 70 or so people there already. Most of them were summer students (I doubt the older physicists would want to get up at 2 to get in line). The catch was that half of the auditorium was already reserved for the important people, leaving only 150 or so seats for those of us in line. Good thing I got there early!
I attempted to sleep, to no avail, so I watched a movie on my laptop, played cards, did whatever it took to keep myself occupied for 5 hours. Security had actually worried that people would attempt to sleep in the auditorium, so it was locked from Tuesday night until 7:30am Wednesday. The seminar itself started at 9am. So, there we all were, wrapped under blankets, listening to music, playing cards...It was very strange when it started getting light outside - I felt like I had been pulling an all-nighter, even though I had gotten around 2.5 hours of sleep. There had been a wave of people that arrived around 4-5am, and by 6:30am, the line snaked up and down the hallway, down the stairs, and a considerable distance past the stairs (I just read in an article that they estimate that 1,000 people were waiting in this line by the end of it). I was really glad I got there at 2! If I had stuck to my original plan, getting there around 5, I would not have gotten a seat in the auditorium.
Around 7:00am, everyone suddenly stood up and surged toward the auditorium, which I really didn't understand since there was still half an hour to go. But FINALLY, at long last, they opened the doors! We had a bit of a scare when security halted the line about five people ahead of us, but thankfully they were just waiting for the people already in to find seats. The line started moving again, I made eye contact with the security guard as he counted me, went up a flight of stairs...then I was in! I could hardly believe it! It was surreal to be sitting in the place where they would be announcing the biggest results in decades of High Energy Physics research. I found myself asking, "Is this actually happening?!" Unfortunately, there was still an hour and a half to wait...but it flew by. Peter Higgs himself was one of the last people to enter the auditorium, and he got a standing ovation from the whole crowd.
The first speaker was the spokesperson for the CMS experiment here at CERN (CMS is one of the two general experiments that look for answers to existing physics and also look for new stuff outside our current theory of the universe. The other is the experiment I work on, ATLAS). There was a lot of introductory stuff, blah blah blah, but as soon as the spokesperson said something to the extent of "And now for the results," the entire auditorium sat up a little straighter, alert now and paying attention. The anticipation in the air was overwhelming.
Here's a little background on the basic statistics used in physics analysis: data is taken using the gigantic detectors, which is then compared to theoretical simulations. Fluctuations occur when the data doesn't quite match up with those simulations, but usually these fluctuations go away with more data. Fluctuations are measured by how far they deviate from the expected prediction, using a "sigma" system. 1 sigma is equivalent to a 1 in 3 chance that the fluctuation happened by chance, 2 sigma means a 1 in 22 chance, 3 sigma means a 1 in 370 chance (also the threshold for claiming "evidence" of something), 4 sigma means a 1 in 15,787 chance, and 5 sigma means a 1 in 1.7 million chance. 5 sigma is the threshold for claiming a "discovery." Now that you know some of the basic terms, let me continue.
While all the physicists were tuned in, Dr. Tonelli went on to describe the results of a break-neck paced analysis that had taken place over the course of only two weeks, a feat almost unheard of. And this was where we had our first 5 sigma result! The auditorium broke out in cheers and applause. More results, more talking...and this was the final CMS result:
Exciting right?! Next it was ATLAS's turn. More blah blah, and again, everyone perked up when Fabiola got to the results section. And guess what? More 5 sigma results!! A new particle had finally been discovered!
There was cheering and applause for a long while - the infamous Higgs boson MIGHT have been discovered!! I say might because there are hints that this may not be exactly what we were looking for. This is not a failure in the eyes of physics. Instead, it only opens new doors and makes us question whether our theory is actually correct. In my opinion, yeah, it would be awesome to find the Higgs, but it would be infinitely more exciting if we're wrong about something. We would have to rethink the Standard Model and come up with something new that explains what we are seeing. But regardless, as of this morning, a new boson has been discovered, the heaviest yet measured. Whether or not it was what we were looking for remains to be seen.
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