LHC data shows strong signal that Higgs gives leptons mass

The Guardian : At a seminar on 26 November, Aliaksandr Pranko announced that the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider had detected probable Higgs decay into tau leptons . While not conclusive evidence, it is very likely that more collisions will confirm the finding. According to the standard model, the Higgs gives mass to both fermions , the particles that make up the matter in the universe, and to bosons , the particles that represent the transmission of the fundamental forces. So when the Higgs decays, any particle to which it gives mass has a chance to be the decay product. When discovery of the Higgs was first announced two years ago, the evidence for its existence was its decay into W and Z bosons, which mediate the weak force. There was some evidence for decays into quarks and leptons, but not enough to suggest that they were true signals. This new evidence of Higgs decays into leptons, especially if confirmed, helps to clarify the accuracy of the standard model and of potential replacements that hope to answer some questions that the standard model does not.