occasional meanderings in physics' brave new world

Name:
Location: New Zealand

Marni D. Sheppeard

## Friday, December 22, 2006

### Awaiting Fairies

We all await the new constraints on the SM Higgs mass, which will follow from the new measurement of W mass. Tommaso has already given away that the first four digits are 8040 which can only mean $m_W$ = 80.40 GeV. Meanwhile, the no Higgs vote has stabilised at just above 50%. Will all CDF worker family members please refrain from feeding the CDF worker too much food over the next couple of weeks. They have a lot of work to do.

Update: It's now official ...
$m_W = 80.413 \pm 0.048$ GeV

L. Riofrio said...

If, as the poll suggests there is no Higgs, then the physics establishment will look very bad.

December 22, 2006 5:26 PM
Kea said...

Hi Louise

Unfortunately, we will probably have to wait a few more years until the observational situation is clear.

December 22, 2006 5:50 PM
quantum diaries survivor said...

Hi Kea,

yes, I apologize... Yesterday night I was quite drank, and I gave away a zero while a 1 should have been there.

Cheers,
T.

December 23, 2006 3:15 AM
Kea said...

Hee, hee, Tommaso. Good to know you're enjoying yourself. A 1 sounds better to me! Unfortunately, the Higgs is still going to come in with an upper bound above 114 GeV, heh?

December 23, 2006 10:57 AM
quantum diaries survivor said...

heee heee... Yes the higgs is not dead yet. Oh, and drank --> drunk (maybe there was some alcohol still in my body as I wrote the last comment).

Anyway. The W mass is blessed, but not public yet!!! I removed it from my blog, but of course you need not do the same - you are not a member of CDF!

And besides, I am not even dreaming of asking you to do it :)

Cheers,
T.

December 23, 2006 1:18 PM
CarlBrannen said...

I got my category theory textbook, and will begin reading it. Also, I've started a thread at Physics Forums.

The book looks very very readable.

December 24, 2006 7:39 PM