Fermilab experiments constrain Higgs mass

CDF, DZero experiments exclude significant fraction of Higgs territory

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Batavia, Ill.—The territory where the Higgs boson may be found continues to shrink. The latest analysis of data from the CDF and DZero collider experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab now excludes a significant fraction of the allowed Higgs mass range established by earlier measurements. Those experiments predict that the Higgs particle should have a mass between 114 and 185 GeV/c². Now the CDF and DZero results carve out a section in the middle of this range and establish that it cannot have a mass in between 160 and 170 GeV/c².

“ The outstanding performance of the Tevatron and CDF and DZero together have produced this important result,” said Dennis Kovar, Associate Director of the Office of Science for High Energy Physics at the U.S. Department of Energy. “We're looking forward to further Tevatron constraints on the Higgs mass."

The Higgs particle is a keystone in the theoretical framework known as the Standard Model of particles and their interactions. According to the Standard Model, the Higgs boson explains why some elementary particles have mass and others do not.

So far, the Higgs particle has eluded direct detection. Searches at the Large Electron Positron collider at the European laboratory CERN established that the Higgs boson must weigh more than 114 GeV/c². Calculations of quantum effects involving the Higgs boson require its mass to be less than 185 GeV/c².

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Members of the CDF and DZero collaborations gathered at the User's Center Tuesday for food and music to celebrate the discovery of single top quark production at the Tevatron. Photo: Gavin Hesketh.

Irish Celtic music comes to Fermilab

A beloved Irish band returns to Fermilab on Saturday.

The renowned group Solas debuted at Fermilab seven years ago to a “sold-out, very happy audience,” said Janet MacKay-Galbraith, performing arts program manager for the Fermilab Arts and Lecture Series.

She expects another sold-out performance when the group returns to Fermilab March 14, and recommends people purchase tickets in advance. Tickets for the 8 p.m. performance in Ramsey Auditorium can be purchased at the Fermilab Box Office, which is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Or call (630) 840-2787. Tickets cost $25 for adults, and $13 for ages 18 and younger.

Solas, which means “light” in Gaelic , formed in New York City and gained wide-spread recognition after performing on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” in 1996. The Boston Herald called the quartet “the first truly great Irish band to arise from America.”

The group includes five members, who play the accordion, guitar, banjo and bouzouki, or lute. Their music is rooted in Irish jigs and other folk song forms.

Find information on Solas here, http://www.solasmusic.com/