A search has signal events and background events in its mass window before any…

PHYSICS · Multi-part · Fermi University Physics · Mathematical Methods for Physics · Particle Physics & Quantum Fields · Particles, interactions and experiment

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

Problem

A search has

N_{\rm sig} = 300

signal events and

N_{\rm bkg} = 8000

background events in its mass window before any additional selection cut. ((a)) Compute the significance

N_{\rm sig}/\sqrt{N_{\rm bkg}}

before the cut. ((b)) A proposed cut keeps

90\%

of the signal (

\varepsilon_{\rm s} = 0.90

) and

50\%

of the background (

\varepsilon_{\rm b} = 0.50

). Compute the significance after the cut and state whether the cut is worth making.

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