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[Note: This is from 2011 but still relevant] Higgs Combos, Global Fit, the Dead, the Alive & the New (by Philip E. Gibbs): Abstract: The editors of SGJ ask me to share with SGJ readers this article appeared in PSTJ V2(7) and I happily accept. If we accept the combination uncertainty estimate and the statistical validity of combining all direct searches with electroweak fits:
We indirectly rule out a lone standard model Higgs boson of any mass with no additional BSM physics at 90% confidence, i.e. a fair bit short of conclusively. We directly rule out any standard model Higgs boson at 95% confidence except in the mass ranges 114GeV to 144GeV or 240 GeV to 265 GeV or above 480 GeV. We do not rule out other BSM Higgs-type mechanisms including composite Higgs, technicolor Higgs, Higgs doublets, SUSY Higgs etc. We do not rule out high-mass Higgs bosons above 480 GeV in combination with other BSM physics that could explain electroweak fits and cure theoretical limitations of the SM at higher energies. We see excesses at around 130 GeV to around 160 GeV that could be between two and three sigma level. It might suggest some new physics such as some kind of Higgs particle(s) in this region. However, these are not high levels of statistical significance. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/117
A Natural Explanation of Spiritual Enlightenment (by James Kowall): Abstract: Recent developments in theoretical physics, which include attempts to unify the laws of the universe, as in string theory, and attempts to explain the origin of the universe, as in inflationary cosmology, are interpreted in terms of the theater of consciousness mental model of the world. This scientific paradigm dates back to ideas that Plato first discussed in the Allegory of the Cave, and is consistent with the holographic principle of quantum gravity, the many world interpretation of quantum theory, and the Gödel incompleteness theorems. This mental model of the world leads to a natural theory of the mind, and is consistent with spiritual discussions of creation, as found in Genesis, and expressions of nondual wisdom, as found in the Tao Te Ching. A natural explanation of spiritual enlightenment in the nondual sense of 'no-self' or 'emptiness', and the concept of 'nothingness' as expressed in Buddhism, Zen and Hinduism, are also discussed. http://scigod.com/index.php/sgj/article/view/118
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