Observation of an excess in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson at ALEPH

A search has been performed for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the data sample collected with the ALEPH detector at LEP, at centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. An excess of 3σ beyond the background expectation is found, consistent with the production of the Higgs boson with a mass near 114 GeV/c2. Much of this excess is seen in the four-jet analyses, where three high purity events are selected. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.