50 research outputs found
Estimating a Signal In the Presence of an Unknown Background
We describe a method for fitting distributions to data which only requires
knowledge of the parametric form of either the signal or the background but not
both. The unknown distribution is fit using a non-parametric kernel density
estimator. The method returns parameter estimates as well as errors on those
estimates. Simulation studies show that these estimates are unbiased and that
the errors are correct
Correcting the Minimization Bias in Searches for Small Signals
We discuss a method for correcting the bias in the limits for small signals
if those limits were found based on cuts that were chosen by minimizing a
criterion such as sensitivity. Such a bias is commonly present when a
"minimization" and an "evaluation" are done at the same time. We propose to use
a variant of the bootstrap to adjust the limits. A Monte Carlo study shows that
these new limits have correct coverage.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figue
Limits and Confidence Intervals in the Presence of Nuisance Parameters
We study the frequentist properties of confidence intervals computed by the
method known to statisticians as the Profile Likelihood. It is seen that the
coverage of these intervals is surprisingly good over a wide range of possible
parameter values for important classes of problems, in particular whenever
there are additional nuisance parameters with statistical or systematic errors.
Programs are available for calculating these intervals.Comment: 6 figure