Tantalizing indications, but no proof, of existence of Higgs boson — ‘God particle’

The search for the elusive Higgs boson particle, also known as the God particle, continues.

Despite hints and indications, scientists on Tuesday at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, announced that the elusive particle had not been conclusively found. Scientists have long sought this particular sub-atomic particle, which is believed to be the key to understanding why there is mass in the universe.

According to the New York Times, it will likely be sometime in 2012 before scientists can conclude that the boson actually, conclusively, exists.

“We cannot conclude anything at this stage,” Fabiola Gianotti, the Atlas spokeswoman, said to the Times. “Given the outstanding performance of the L.H.C. this year, we will not need to wait long for enough data and can look forward to resolving this puzzle in 2012.”

Hundreds of scientists around the world gathered to hear CERN scientists announce their findings. Rumors had circulated on the Internet that a major breakthrough had been made.

Two separate experiments at the LHC – Atlas and CMS – have been conducting independent searches for the Higgs.

According to the BBC, what the researchers have found is a strong indication that the boson exists. Previous research has indicated the particle probably weighs about 125 million electron volts. 

“The excess is most compatible with a Standard Model Higgs in the vicinity of 124 GeV and below, but the statistical significance is not large enough to say anything conclusive, Guido Tonelli, spokesperson for the CMS experiment, said to the BBC.

A gigaelectronvolts, or GeV, is equal to one million electron volts.