Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics
Glen CowanPhysics Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UKKyle CranmerPhysics Department, New York University, New York, NY, 10003, USAEilam GrossWeizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, IsraelOfer VitellsWeizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
2011en
ABI
Abstract
We describe likelihood-based statistical tests for use in high energy physics for the discovery of new phenomena and for construction of confidence intervals on model parameters. We focus on the properties of the test procedures that allow one to account for systematic uncertainties. Explicit formulae for the asymptotic distributions of test statistics are derived using results of Wilks and Wald. We motivate and justify the use of a representative data set, called the “Asimov data set”, which provides a simple method to obtain the median experimental sensitivity of a search or measurement as well as fluctuations about this expectation.
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