Search for the Higgs
Task 2

Among other things, the LHC was built to find evidence of the Higgs field in our universe by discovering the Higgs particle for which physicists have been searching for a while. Theoretical predictions tell us that heavy particles, e.g. top quarks, produced in collisions within the LHC might produce such Higgs particles. But this has not yet been observed. However, you can look for them! A few simulated Higgs events were hidden in real data.

Find the Higgs events!



You also need to know criteria, which will enable you to identify a possible Higgs candidate. A Higgs candidate event must:

  • contain EXACTLY TWO OPPOSITE electric charged leptons, which
  • are isolated on the one side and
  • each of them must have a transverse momentum of at least 20 GeV. Furthermore
  • a missing transverse momentum of at least 40 GeV is required.


Only if an event fulfils all these criteria a Higgs particle might have been produced in this event and thus we call it a Higgs candidate event.