Power-Constrained Limits
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
2011-05-17 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract
We propose a method for setting limits that avoids excluding parameter values for which the sensitivity falls below a specified threshold. These "power-constrained" limits (PCL) address the issue that motivated the widely used CLs procedure, but do so in a way that makes more transparent the properties of the statistical test to which each value of the parameter is subjected. A case of particular interest is for upper limits on parameters that are proportional to the cross section of a process whose existence is not yet established. The basic idea of the power constraint can easily be applied, however, to other types of limits.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1105.3166,
title = {Power-Constrained Limits},
author = {Glen Cowan and Kyle Cranmer and Eilam Gross and Ofer Vitells},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1105.3166},
year = {2011}
}