Evidence of the Higgs Boson Decaying into Two Photons

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons will be presented. The analysis will cover 5.1 fb^-1 and 19.6 fb^-1 of LHC proton-proton collisions collected at a center of mass energy of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively, with the CMS detector. The search reveals an excess of events near 125 GeV that is consistent with the standard model Higgs boson. The significance of the excess is 3.2σ at 125 GeV, where 4.1σ is expected. The best-fit cross-section is 0.78^+0.28_-0.26 times the standard model, and the best-fit mass is 125.4?0.5(stat.)?0.6(syst.) GeV. The excess is also present in a cut-based cross-check analysis with a significance of 3.9σ, where 3.5σ is expected, which corresponds to a best-fit cross-section of 1.11^+0.32_-0.30 at 124.5 GeV. Both the measured cross-section and couplings are consistent with a standard model Higgs boson.