Elsevier

Physics Letters B

Volume 716, Issue 1, 17 September 2012, Pages 1-29
Physics Letters B

Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

This paper is dedicated to the memory of our ATLAS colleagues who did not live to see the full impact and significance of their contributions to the experiment.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2012.08.020Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in proton–proton collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The datasets used correspond to integrated luminosities of approximately 4.8 fb−1 collected at s=7 TeV in 2011 and 5.8 fb−1 at s=8 TeV in 2012. Individual searches in the channels HZZ()4, Hγγ and HWW()eνμν in the 8 TeV data are combined with previously published results of searches for HZZ(), WW(), bb¯ and τ+τ in the 7 TeV data and results from improved analyses of the HZZ()4 and Hγγ channels in the 7 TeV data. Clear evidence for the production of a neutral boson with a measured mass of 126.0±0.4(stat)±0.4(sys)GeV is presented. This observation, which has a significance of 5.9 standard deviations, corresponding to a background fluctuation probability of 1.7×109, is compatible with the production and decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson.

Cited by (0)

© CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration.

E-mail address: [email protected].

a

Also at Laboratorio de Instrumentacao e Fisica Experimental de Particulas – LIP, Lisboa, Portugal.

b

Also at Faculdade de Ciencias and CFNUL, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

c

Also at Particle Physics Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom.

d

Also at TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

e

Also at Department of Physics, California State University, Fresno, CA, United States.

f

Also at Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia.

g

Also at Fermilab, Batavia, IL, United States.

h

Also at Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

i

Also at Department of Physics, UASLP, San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

j

Also at Università di Napoli Parthenope, Napoli, Italy.

k

Also at Institute of Particle Physics (IPP), Canada.

l

Also at Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

m

Also at Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, United States.

n

Also at Dep Fisica and CEFITEC of Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal.

o

Also at Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London, United Kingdom.

p

Also at Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

q

Also at Institute of Physics, Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, Baku, Azerbaijan.

r

Also at Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

s

Also at Manhattan College, New York, NY, United States.

t

Also at CPPM, Aix-Marseille Université and CNRS/IN2P3, Marseille, France.

u

Also at School of Physics and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guanzhou, China.

v

Also at Academia Sinica Grid Computing, Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

w

Also at Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Energies, UPMC and Université Paris-Diderot and CNRS/IN2P3, Paris, France.

x

Also at School of Physics, Shandong University, Shandong, China.

y

Also at Dipartimento di Fisica, Università La Sapienza, Roma, Italy.

z

Also at DSM/IRFU (Institut de Recherches sur les Lois Fondamentales de lʼUnivers), CEA Saclay (Commissariat a lʼEnergie Atomique), Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

aa

Also at Section de Physique, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland.

ab

Also at Departamento de Fisica, Universidade de Minho, Braga, Portugal.

ac

Also at Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, United States.

ad

Also at Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest, Hungary.

ae

Also at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States.

af

Also at Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.

ag

Also at LAL, Université Paris-Sud and CNRS/IN2P3, Orsay, France.

ah

Also at Nevis Laboratory, Columbia University, Irvington, NY, United States.

ai

Also at Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.

aj

Also at Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.

ak

Also at Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

al

Also at Department of Physics, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.

am

Also at Discipline of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Deceased.