Related papers: Discovering the Significance of 5 sigma
We examine discovery criteria at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) within a model-independent framework, with particular emphasis on the statistical signatures of new physics. This study is motivated by the recent shift from model-specific…
The LHC experiments have great potential in discovering many possible new particles up to the TeV scale. The significance calculation of an observation of a physics signal with known location and shape is no longer valid when either the…
This is the write-up of a set of lectures given at the Asia Europe Pacific School of High Energy Physics in Quy Nhon, Vietnam in September 2018, to an audience of PhD students in all branches of particle physics They cover the different…
Given the cost, both financial and even more importantly in terms of human effort, in building High Energy Physics accelerators and detectors and running them, it is important to use good statistical techniques in analysing data. Some of…
The following proposition is justified from several different points of view. If you use P = 0.05 to suggest that you have made a discovery, you will be wrong at least 30 percent of the time. If, as is often the case, experiments are…
We propose a method to estimate the probability of new physics discovery in future high energy physics experiments. Physics simulation gives both the average numbers $<N_b>$ of background and $<N_s>$ of signal events. We find that the…
I show that with the discovery of the Higgs boson we have entered a new phase of our understanding of nature. This leads us towards a paradigm shift in the search for possible new physics, away from major extensions like supersymmetry…
The cleanest way to discover a new particle is generally the "bump-hunt" methodology: looking for a localised excess in a mass (or related) distribution. However, if the mass of the particle being discovered is not known the procedure of…
The projected discovery and exclusion capabilities of particle physics and astrophysics/cosmology experiments are often quantified using the median expected $p$-value or its corresponding significance. We argue that this criterion leads to…
The pion-nucleon sigma term is a quantity involved in many important aspects of particle and nuclear physics. In this review I show its origin and how it is connected to important questions as the origin of mass of the ordinary matter,…
We propose a method to estimate the probability of new physics discovery in future high energy physics experiments. Physics simulation gives both the average numbers <Nb> of background and <Ns> of signal events. We find that the proper…
We first discuss the theoretical and phenomenological significance of the sigma meson ($\sigma$) in QCD. It is indicated that if the collective modes with the mass 500-600 MeV exists in the $I=J=0$ channel, various empirical facts in hadron…
Because the emphasis of the LHC is on 5 sigma discoveries and the LHC environment induces high systematic errors, many of the common statistical procedures used in High Energy Physics are not adequate. I review the basic ingredients of LHC…
The observational evidence for the recent acceleration of the universe demonstrates that canonical theories of cosmology and particle physics are incomplete---if not incorrect---and that new physics is out there, waiting to be discovered. A…
The standard in the high energy physics community for claiming discovery of new physics is a $5\sigma$ excess in the observed signal over the estimated background. While a $3\sigma$ excess is not enough to claim discovery, it is certainly…
With the discovery of the Higgs, we have access to a plethora of new physical processes that allow us to further test the SM and beyond. We show a convenient way to parametrize these physics using an effective theory for Higgs couplings,…
I present a concise review of the Higgs problem which plays a central role in particle physics today. The Higgs of the minimal Standard Model is so far just a conjecture that needs to be verified or discarded at the LHC. Probably the…
A recent paper [2109.02650] accumulates evidence for a new fundamental particle by combining several CMS and ATLAS searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson. The putative particle is a neutral scalar, $S$, with a mass of about 151 GeV.…
A set of signatures for physics processes of potential interests for the CLIC programme at 1 - 5 TeV are discussed. These signatures, that may correspond to the manifestation of different scenarios of new physics as well to Standard Model…
Crucial experiments have a long history of contributions to progress in physics. Similarly, we claim that in the period roughly from 1955 to 1985 crucial calculations played a significant role in setting the agenda for elementary particle…