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Abstract
Results are presented from searches for the standard model Higgs boson in proton-proton
collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 and 8 TeV in the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the
LHC, using data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 5.1 inverse
femtobarns at 7 TeV and 5.3 inverse femtobarns at 8 TeV. The search is performed in
five decay modes: gamma gamma, ZZ, WW, tau tau, and b b-bar. An excess of events is
observed above the expected background, with a local significance of 5.0 standard
deviations, at a mass near 125 GeV, signalling the production of a new particle. The
expected significance for a standard model Higgs boson of that mass is 5.8 standard
deviations. The excess is most significant in the two decay modes with the best mass
resolution, gamma gamma and ZZ; a fit to these signals gives a mass of 125.3 +/- 0.4
(stat.) +/- 0.5 (syst.) GeV. The decay to two photons indicates that the new particle
is a boson with spin different from one.