Staley, Kent (2016) Securing the Empirical Value of Measurement Results. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Reports of quantitative experimental results often distinguish between the statistical uncertainty and the systematic uncertainty that characterize measurement outcomes. This paper discusses the practice of estimating systematic uncertainty in High Energy Physics (HEP). The estimation of systematic uncertainty in HEP should be understood as a minimal form of quantitative robustness analysis. The secure evidence framework is used to explain the epistemic significance of robustness analysis. However, the empirical value of a measurement result depends crucially not only on the resulting systematic uncertainty estimate, but on the learning aims for which that result will be used. Philosophically important conceptual and practical questions regarding systematic uncertainty assessment call for further investigation.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Staley, Kent staleykw@gmail.com 0000-0002-7536-2087
Keywords:	measurement, uncertainty, evidence, experiment, high energy physics, statistics
Subjects:	General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Depositing User:	Kent Staley
Date Deposited:	02 Jul 2016 19:22
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2016 19:22
Item ID:	12252
Subjects:	General Issues > Experimentation Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles General Issues > Models and Idealization Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
Date:	2 July 2016
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/12252

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