Weighing in on the Higgs
Abstract
Assuming the validity of the Standard Model, or more generally that possible physics beyond it would have only small effects on production cross sections, branching ratios and electroweak radiative corrections, I determine the mass of the Higgs boson to 124.5 +- 0.8 GeV at the 68% CL. This is arrived at by combining electroweak precision data with the results of Higgs boson searches at LEP 2, the Tevatron, and the LHC as of december of 2011. The statistical interpretation of the method does not require a look-elsewhere effect correction. The method is then applied to the data available at the time of the 2012 summer conferences. In this case, a remarkable bell-shaped MH distribution is observed, and MH = 125.5 +- 0.5 GeV is extracted. The significance of the bulk (signal) region of the distribution of neither experiment actually exceeds five standard deviations, but the combination implies a 6.8 sigma effect.
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