Scientific Papers on if the buddha existed

[Metaphor]

There was a thread here a few years ago which is now locked, but there were lots of good comments that might be of interest:

Historical Evidence for the Buddha

Once again, the topic of this thread is “historical evidence of the Buddha.” The latter developments of Shin Buddhism have very little, if anything, to do with this topic, as interesting as it may be. Please start another topic to discuss the Pure Land beliefs, and leave this topic for those who wish to discuss the historical evidence of the Buddha Gautama. Thank you, most kindly!