Letter: Letters : Don't give up on Higgs

From Martin Gruenewald, Peter Igo-Kemenes, Roberto Tenchini, Tiziano Camporesi, Maria Kienzle and David Plane, Chairman of the LEP Electroweak Working Group; Chairman of the LEP Higgs Working Group; Spokesman of the ALEPH Collaboration; Spokesman of the DELPHI Collaboration; Chairperson of the L3 Collaboration; Spokesman of the OPAL Collaboration

CERN, Geneva

We read with astonishment that results from the LEP experiments indicated
that the Higgs boson probably does not exist (8 December, p 4). As chairpersons
of the LEP Higgs and Electroweak working groups and spokespersons of the LEP
Collaborations, we would like to inform you that there is no such claim from LEP
experimental groups.

Although the search for the Higgs boson is an important and fascinating
topic, it nonetheless forms only a small part of the research programme at LEP.
After many years of detailed analyses of LEP data, our knowledge of the
fundamental constituents and interactions of nature has improved tremendously.
The standard model is the theory that summarises best our current understanding.
The remarkable conclusion from a wide variety of measurements is that the
standard model essentially describes them all, and there is no compelling need
for introducing new phenomena beyond those foreseen by the standard model.

Based on these precise measurements, the theory makes predictions for the
mass of the Higgs boson. It tells us that the mass is probably lower than 200
gigaelectonvolts.

We conclude from the results of our direct searches for the Higgs boson that
the mass is larger than 114 GeV. This is perfectly compatible with the above
prediction— hence our dismay concerning the report that we have ruled out
the existence of the Higgs boson. In addition, we have hints in the data which
are compatible with the production of a Higgs boson with a mass of about 115
GeV.

All our data are thus consistent and compatible with the existence of the
Higgs boson, which remains one of the key issues for our understanding of
particle physics. This was the conclusion a year ago, and remains after more
refined treatment of the data.