How to define significance in case of signal detection in particle physics?

06 June 2016 1 4K Report

Regarding observability of signal over background, experimentalists quote a quantity something like S/sqrt(B) where S is the number of "signal events" and B is the number of "background events". How does this quantity define 5 sigma, 3 sigma (or "n" sigma) significance?

Suppose in a particular experiment I find 5 signal events and 1 background event (i.e, S = 5, B =1). Does that mean I can claim 5 sigma discovery?

Joseph L Alvarez

The metric S/sqrt(B) is a definition of detection. It is a minimal amount where one can claim the presence of a signal. The signal is not quantified as the uncertainty in S is large even when S = 5, B =1 where the minimum uncertainty in S is greater than 50%.

See

Article: Poisson-based detection limit and signal confidence intervals for few total counts

Joseph L Alvarez

on Research Gate.

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