Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics

Glen Cowan, Kyle Cranmer, Eilam Gross, Ofer Vitells

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We describe likelihood-based statistical tests for use in high energy physics for the discovery of new phenomena and for construction of confidence intervals on model parameters. We focus on the properties of the test procedures that allow one to account for systematic uncertainties. Explicit formulae for the asymptotic distributions of test statistics are derived using results of Wilks and Wald. We motivate and justify the use of a representative data set, called the "Asimov data set", which provides a simple method to obtain the median experimental sensitivity of a search or measurement as well as fluctuations about this expectation.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1554
Number of pages19
JournalEuropean Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields
Volume71
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Feb 2011

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