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As seen back in December, there was a tantalizing hint of a boson more massive than the Higgs, which if true, would point to some new and very exciting physics. Unfortunately, the blip in the data does not appear to be holding up under the scrutiny of better statistics. When the potential particle was announced, 377 papers were thrown up on arxiv as would-be Einsteins set out to stake a claim in the new theoretical physics wilderness. The null result was presented at the biennial International Conference on High Energy Physics.
The null results also set up one of the more humorous situations at the meeting. Immediately following the talks in which experimenters said the purported particle didn't exist, five different theorists took turns explaining what the particle might be.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Saturday August 06 2016, @08:22PM
You've gone through a couple boxes of chalk writing equations on the blackboard, written a paper, flown to a conference, rehearsed your talk. Then some dipwad ahead of you says "our bad, there was nothing there".
Now what? Head off to the bar? Give the talk anyway?
It was a once in a lifetime experience. Which means I'll never do it again.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday August 06 2016, @09:02PM
'but when we added yet another dimension, we got it all to balance and it works, again'
too many notes; but never enough dimensions, it seems.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 07 2016, @12:08AM
But just imagine the teasing! "Your Boson is so massive, it generates its own gravity!" Sure, you could reply, "That is kind of the point." But it would be too late. Almost makes it a relief not to find it.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 07 2016, @10:32AM
That's the explanation! After the researchers discovered how heavy it was, the boson decided to make a diet and lost mass, therefore the researchers couldn't find it any more, as they were looking for the old mass.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @11:22AM
Physics talks can be excruciating anyway. Sitting through those follow on talks must have been torture.