Dawid, Richard (2013) Higgs Discovery and the Look Elsewhere Effect. [Preprint]

Preview

PDF Higgs_and_Look_Elsewhere_Effect.pdf Download (515kB)

Abstract

The discovery of the Higgs particle required a signal of five sigma significance. The rigid application of that condition is a convention that disregards more specific aspects of the given experiment. In particular, it does not account for the characteristics of the look elsewhere effect in the individual experimental context. The paper relates this aspect of data analysis to the question as to what extent theoretical reasoning should be admitted to play a role in the assessment of the significance of empirical data.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Dawid, Richard richard.dawid@philosophy.su.se 0000-0002-1472-2958
Additional Information:	Some minor corrections were made
Keywords:	Higgs particle discovery condition Bayesianism 5 sigma limit collider physics
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation
Depositing User:	Dr. Richard Dawid
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2013 19:05
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2017 15:51
Item ID:	9697
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Fields and Particles Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics General Issues > Theory/Observation
Date:	April 2013
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9697

Available Versions of this Item

• Higgs Discovery and the Look Elsewhere Effect. (deposited 04 Apr 2013 11:27)
  • Higgs Discovery and the Look Elsewhere Effect. (deposited 27 Jun 2014 15:11)
  • Higgs Discovery and the Look Elsewhere Effect. (deposited 22 Apr 2013 19:05) [Currently Displayed]

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item