Related papers: Signal Significance in Particle Physics
I present an overview of standard-model top-quark physics at the Fermilab Tevatron. Topics discussed include the top-quark mass, weak interaction, strong interaction, and rare decays.
We introduce a few of the key ideas of statistical analysis using two real-world examples to illustrate how these ideas are used in practice.
This document is a pedagogical introduction to statistics for particle physics. Emphasis is placed on the terminology, concepts, and methods being used at the Large Hadron Collider. The document addresses both the statistical tests applied…
In high-energy physics (HEP), both the exclusion and discovery of new theories depend not only on the acquisition of high-quality experimental data but also on the rigorous application of statistical methods. These methods provide…
When the heaviest elementary particle known today, the top quark, was discovered in 1995 by the CDF and D0 collaborations at the Fermilab Tevatron collider, a large program to study this particle in details has started. In this article, an…
Quantum mechanics owes much of its extraordinary success to a Hilbertian program of mathematical formalization. Yet, the formalism remains poorly aligned with the practical limitations of computations in finite dimensions and under finite…
The customary use of P-values in scientific research has been attacked as being ill-conceived, and the utility of P-values has been derided. This paper reviews common misconceptions about P-values and their alleged deficits as indices of…
The statistical model of hadronization succeeds in reproducing particle abundances and transverse momentum spectra in high energy collisions of elementary particles as well as of heavy ions. Despite its apparent success, the interpretation…
Throughout quantum mechanics there is statistical balance, in the collective response of an ensemble of systems to differing measurement types. Statistical balance is a core feature of quantum mechanics, underlying quantum mechanical…
The heaviest known Fermion particle -- the top quark -- was discovered at Fermilab in the first run of the Tevatron in 1995. However, besides its mere existence one needs to study its properties precisely in order to verify or falsify the…
The top quark discovery in 1995 at Fermilab is one of the major proofs of the standard model (SM). Due to its unique place in SM, the top quark is an important particle for testing the theory and probing for new physics. This article…
We define some appropriate statistical quantities that indicate the physical significance (reliability) of confidence intervals in the framework of both Frequentist and Bayesian statistical theories. We consider the expectation value of the…
Multivariate Analysis is an increasingly common tool in experimental high energy physics; however, many of the common approaches were borrowed from other fields. We clarify what the goal of a multivariate algorithm should be for the search…
Machine-learning techniques have become fundamental in high-energy physics and, for new physics searches, it is crucial to know their performance in terms of experimental sensitivity, understood as the statistical significance of the…
Because of the top quark's very large mass, about 175~GeV, it now provides the best window into flavor physics. Thus, pair--production of top quarks at the Tevatron Collider is the best probe of this physics until the Large Hadron Collider…
In classical statistical mechanics, the partition function is defined in phase space. We extend this concept to quantum statistical mechanics using Bohmian trajectories. The quantum partition function in phase space captures the ensemble of…
Ten years after its discovery at the Tevatron collider, we still know little about the top quark. Its large mass suggests it may play a key role in the mechanism of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB), or open a window of sensitivity to…
The statistical methods used in deriving physics results in the BaBar collaboration are reviewed, with especial emphasis on areas where practice is not uniform in particle physics.
On the twentieth anniversary of the observation of the top quark, we trace our understanding of this heaviest of all known particles from the prediction of its existence, through the searches and discovery, to the current knowledge of its…
Some of the most astonishing and prominent properties of Quantum Mechanics, such as entanglement and Bell nonlocality, have only been studied extensively in dedicated low-energy laboratory setups. The feasibility of these studies in the…