Tantalizing hints of long-sought particle

European collider finds traces of what could be the Higgs boson

The world’s most powerful atom smasher has given physicists a tantalizing — but inconclusive — hint that the long-sought Higgs particle actually exists.

HIGGS IN THE SPOTLIGHT Colliding protons create a splash of particles streaking outward along paths (yellow) reconstructed here from data collected by the CMS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.