Data Analysis Techniques For High Energy Physics

Up-dated indispensable guide to handling and analysing data obtained from high-energy and nuclear physics experiments.

This practical guide covers the essential tasks in statistical data analysis encountered in high energy physics and provides comprehensive advice for typical questions and problems. The basic methods for inferring results from data are presented as well as tools for advanced tasks such as improving the signal-to-background ratio, correcting detector effects, determining systematics and many others. Concrete applications are discussed in analysis walkthroughs. Each chapter is supplemented by numerous examples and exercises and by a list of literature and relevant links. The book targets a broad readership at all career levels - from students to senior researchers. An accompanying website provides more algorithms as well as up-to-date information and links. * Free solutions manual available for lecturers at www.wiley-vch.de/supplements/

High-energy physics - the science of the fundamental particles nature - has become one of the most complex and demanding disciplines of natural science. The observation of particle interactions involves the analysis of large and intricate data samples. The very high cost of these experiments makes the full and correct use of the information imperative. Successful interpretation of the data requires the application of advanced mathematical algorithms and computer techniques in all stages of the analysis. The necessary and available techniques of all steps of the analysis have been assembled in a single book. All four authors have had many years' involvement with high-energy physics experiments at CERN, DESY and other particle accelerators around the world. They have written this book both as an introduction and to inform the reader on the most advanced techniques of data analysis in this field. It will be of great value to people involved in experimental research in particle physics, including beginning graduates, computer electronic engineers and senior academics.

Modern analysis of HEP data needs advanced statistical tools to separate signal from background. This is the first book which focuses on machine learning techniques. It will be of interest to almost every high energy physicist, and, due to its coverage, suitable for students.

Up-dated indispensable guide to handling and analysing data obtained from high-energy and nuclear physics experiments.

This concise set of course-based notes provides the reader with the main concepts and tools needed to perform statistical analyses of experimental data, in particular in the field of high-energy physics (HEP). First, the book provides an introduction to probability theory and basic statistics, mainly intended as a refresher from readers’ advanced undergraduate studies, but also to help them clearly distinguish between the Frequentist and Bayesian approaches and interpretations in subsequent applications. More advanced concepts and applications are gradually introduced, culminating in the chapter on both discoveries and upper limits, as many applications in HEP concern hypothesis testing, where the main goal is often to provide better and better limits so as to eventually be able to distinguish between competing hypotheses, or to rule out some of them altogether. Many worked-out examples will help newcomers to the field and graduate students alike understand the pitfalls involved in applying theoretical concepts to actual data. This new second edition significantly expands on the original material, with more background content (e.g. the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, best linear unbiased estimator), applications (unfolding and regularization procedures, control regions and simultaneous fits, machine learning concepts) and examples (e.g. look-elsewhere effect calculation).

A comprehensive guide to data analysis techniques for the physical sciences including probability, statistics, data reconstruction, data correction and Monte Carlo methods. This book provides a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, as well as practitioners in the fields of experimental particle physics, nuclear physics and astrophysics.

This book is a guide to the practical application of statistics in data analysis as typically encountered in the physical sciences. It is primarily addressed at students and professionals who need to draw quantitative conclusions from experimental data. Although most of the examples are takenfrom particle physics, the material is presented in a sufficiently general way as to be useful to people from most branches of the physical sciences. The first part of the book describes the basic tools of data analysis: concepts of probability and random variables, Monte Carlo techniques,statistical tests, and methods of parameter estimation. The last three chapters are somewhat more specialized than those preceding, covering interval estimation, characteristic functions, and the problem of correcting distributions for the effects of measurement errors (unfolding).