Live-Blogging the Higgs Seminar

A couple of us are going to try to live-blog the July 4 Higgs update seminars from CERN. This effort will be subject to the whims of internet connectivity, of course, but we'll do our best. At the moment we have correspondents on at least three different continents (I [Sean] am at CERN, JoAnne is in Melbourne for ICHEP, and I think John is in California...), so hopefully at least one of us will be able to get through. We'll just be updating this post, so keep refreshing. You are also welcome to try the CERN webcast. Seminars proper start at 9am Geneva time (3am Eastern time, midnight Pacific time, 5pm Melbourne time). One from ATLAS, by Fabiola Giannoti, and one from CMS, by Joe Incandela. Then a press conference after. Remember what we're looking for: how significant is the signal, do the two experiments agree with each other, does the rate agree with the Standard Model prediction, are different channels mutually consistent with each other. If people ask questions in the comments there is some chance that we will try to answer them. Has there ever been a scientific discovery (if indeed we will be able to call it that) that has been anticipated so far ahead of time? Can't think of any off the top of my head. Fasten your seatbelts! 11:38 pm Geneva time (Sean): Preliminary thought #1: There is a "nightmare scenario" that particle physicists have worried about for years. Namely: find exactly the Standard Model Higgs and nothing else at the LHC. I personally assign the nightmare scenario very low probability. Not on the basis of any inside info, just on the basis of physics. We know the Standard Model is not right; there is dark matter, there is dark energy, there is baryogenesis, there are the hierarchy and cosmological constant and strong-CP problems. It can't be the final answer. Seems to me much more likely that there is interesting physics at the weak scale above and beyond the Higgs, than we just get stuck with a vanilla Standard Model. Beyond this physics-informed prediction, there is the wishful hope that the Higgs itself leads directly to new physics. Most obvious example: in many (most?) models of dark matter as weakly-interacting massive particles, the dominant way that dark matter and ordinary matter interact is through exchange of Higgs bosons. If that's how nature works, the Higgs is literally a portal from our world to another. This isn't the end of the show, it's merely an act break (as we say in the movie biz). 11:44 pm Geneva time (Sean): Preliminary thought #2: I am a mere theorist, and let me be as legitimately humble as I can be right here. Beyond the details of whatever may or may not be found, the LHC is a gargantuan effort undertaken by literally thousands of people over the course of years and in many cases decades. This moment, we hope, is something of a payoff for their perseverance. My hat is off to the experimentalists and engineers and technicians who really made it happen. 11:52 pm (Sean): I'm told that there will be a mirror for the webcast at NOVA (PBS). 12:04 am, Geneva time (Sean): Epsilon past midnight, and apparently people are queueing up already. Not me; I'm headed for bed. 5:34 am (Sean): Good morning, world! Anyone got anything going on today? 5:56 am (Sean): Shameless plug alert: physicist and friend-of-the-blog David Kaplan has been producing a feature-film-length documentary about the LHC and the quest for new physics. It's called Particle Fever, and it's almost ready to hit the festival circuit. Follow along at the movie's Facebook page. 6:53 am (Sean): We're here! Definitely a rock-concert vibe in the air, as folks have been camping out for a while to get into the auditorium. Doors still not open as yet.