Staley, Kent (2016) Pragmatic Warrant for Frequentist Statistical Practice: The Case of High Energy Physics. Synthese. ISSN 1573-0964

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Abstract

Amidst long-standing debates within the field, High Energy Physics (HEP) has adopted a statistical methodology that employs primarily standard frequentist Amidst long-running debates within the field, High Energy Physics (HEP) has adopted a statistical methodology that primarily employs standard frequentist techniques such as significance testing and confidence interval estimation, but incorporates Bayesian methods for limited purposes. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson has drawn increased attention to the statistical methods employed within HEP. Here I argue that the warrant for the practice in HEP of relying primarily on frequentist methods can best be understood as pragmatic, in the sense that statistical methods are chosen for their suitability for the practical demands of experimental HEP, rather than reflecting a commitment to a particular epistemic framework. In particular, I argue that understanding the statistical methodology of HEP through the perspective of pragmatism clarifies the role of and rationale for significance testing in the search for new phenomena such as the Higgs boson.

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Item Type:	Published Article or Volume
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Staley, Kent staleykw@gmail.com
Keywords:	Higgs boson; Statistics; Significance testing; p values; Frequentism; Pragmatism
Subjects:	General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Depositing User:	Kent Staley
Date Deposited:	07 Jul 2016 15:34
Last Modified:	07 Jul 2016 15:34
Item ID:	12251
Journal or Publication Title:	Synthese
Publisher:	Springer (Springer Science+Business Media B.V.)
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1111-3
DOI or Unique Handle:	10.1007/s11229-016-1111-3
Subjects:	General Issues > Confirmation/Induction General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Date:	11 May 2016
ISSN:	1573-0964
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12251

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