English

Error Bars for Distributions of Numbers of Events

Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability 2012-01-31 v3 High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

The common practice for displaying error bars on distributions of numbers of events is confusing and can lead to incorrect conclusions. A proposal is made for a different style of presentation that more directly indicates the level of agreement between expectations and observations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1112.2593,
  title  = {Error Bars for Distributions of Numbers of Events},
  author = {Ritu Aggarwal and Allen Caldwell},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.2593},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

New data presentation scheme in Fig 2 (bands offset by 1/2 a unit). Different prior for the case of limited MC events. A few typos corrected