Science | Higgs boson Now, Even More Evidence of Higgs Boson There's only a one-in-300 million chance it doesn't exist By Kevin Spak Posted Aug 1, 2012 11:37 AM CDT Copied In this May 31, 2007 file photo, a view of the LHC (large hadron collider) in its tunnel at CERN (European particle physics laboratory) near Geneva, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini,File) One of the teams hunting the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider says it has pinned down the particle so conclusively that there's only a one-in-300 million chance it does not exist. When the team announced that it had discovered the Higgs on July 4, it said it had achieved only a "5 sigma" level of certainty, the minimum to claim a discovery, the BBC explains. That amounts to a one-in-3.5 million chance the particle doesn't exist. It's impossible to directly observe the particle, which exists for only a fraction of a second before decaying into something else. But the team has been conducting more analysis on these "decay channels," and as a result has boosted its certainty up to 5.9 sigma. Still, the particle may not be the exact Higgs boson theorists have always imagined; the researchers have been careful at all turns to call it only a "Higgs-like" particle until more analysis can be done. Read These Next Rubio says the fate of Iran's conversion facility is what matters. Some of the most explosive Diddy allegations are dropped. Iran's supreme leader makes first public comments since ceasefire. Fan who taunted Ketel Marte's mom has been banned by MLB. Report an error