Confidence intervals for experiments with background and small numbers of events

Abstract

Abstract Methods to find a confidence interval for Poisson distributed variables are illuminated, especially for the case of poor statistics. The application of ‘central’ and ‘highest probability density’ confidence intervals is compared for the case of low count-rates. A method to determine realistic estimates of the confidence intervals for Poisson distributed variables affected with background, and their ratios, is given.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1524/ract.91.2.71.19989

Citations and references