A search finds signal events sitting on an expected background of events in a mass window

PHYSICS · Subjective · Fermi University Physics · Mathematical Methods for Physics · Probability, statistics and stochastic methods · Probability, statistics and stochastic methods

Particle Physics, Ch Detectors, event reconstruction and claiming a discovery

Problem

A search finds Nsig=1500N_{\rm sig} = 1500 signal events sitting on an expected background of Nbkg=9.0×104N_{\rm bkg} = 9.0\times10^{4} events in a mass window. Compute the significance of this excess using Nsig/NbkgN_{\rm sig}/\sqrt{N_{\rm bkg}}.

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