Physicists detect Higgs boson decaying into muons, confirming theory
Researchers at CERN's ATLAS experiment have found strong evidence that the Higgs boson decays into pairs of muons, a prediction of the Standard Model never directly observed before. The discovery validates how the Higgs interacts with lighter particles and strengthens confidence in physics used to design particle accelerators and materials research.
Originaltitel: Evidence for the Dimuon Decay of the Higgs Boson in 𝑝𝑝 Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
<p>A search for the dimuon decay of the Higgs boson is presented based on 𝑝𝑝 collision data recorded by ATLAS during Run 3 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 165 fb<sup>−1</sup> at √𝑠=13.6 TeV. To enhance the sensitivity, the results are combined with those from Run 2. An excess of events over the background is observed with a significance of 3.4𝜎 (2.5𝜎 expected). The best-fit signal strength is 𝜇=1.4±0.4. This result provides evidence for the 𝐻 → 𝜇𝜇 decay with ATLAS data and offers a direct probe of the Higgs-boson Yukawa coupling to second-generation fermions.</p>