Two Higgses
Back in July, the only thing that might have been better than finding one Higgs was to have seen two Higgs bosons. The two Higgses – actually the Higgs boson and its supersymmetric partner – would have been an even more monumental discovery, since it would have found the long-sought boson and confirmed the existence of supersymmetry.
There was some evidence in December that the Higgs search at one of the LHC’s experiments, ATLAS, was showing two slightly different peaks, leading some to speculate about two potential particles. But most physicists consider this a passing statistical fluke that will disappear with further data.
If supersymmetry is correct, scientists will eventually see another Higgs-type particle when they probe higher energies – it will just be a much heavier partner to the Higgs seen in July. In the meantime, physicists will pick over every single detail of the Higgs to see if it differs from what the Standard Model predicts and could lead to interesting new physics.
Image: The detection of the Higgs boson in July was very exciting. It could have been more exciting with two new particles. “An update of combined measurements of the new Higgs-like boson with high mass resolution channels,” ATLAS team, Dec. 2012