[FOM] Question about theoretical physics

[Vaughan Pratt]

On 2/22/2013 1:45 AM, Arnold Neumaier wrote:
> No. By convention, falsification in high energy physics requires a
> discrepancy of 5 times the standard deviation of the measurement errors
> (which are realizations of a random variable).

And even that conventional criterion failed in the recent case of 
faster-than-light neutrinos, where 6.2 sigma was briefly achieved,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light_neutrino_anomaly#Internal_replication

This raises the question of whether seven sigma is any better.  The 
alleged Higgs boson so far hasn't done much better than the alleged 
faster-than-light neutrinos, raising the possibility that we're 
emotionally biased *against* FTL but *for* the Higgs boson.

Perhaps sigma is the wrong unit.

(Disclaimer: I've had exactly zero contact with Stephen Hawking on this.)

Vaughan Pratt