CERN Accelerating science

CMS Note
Report number	CMS-CR-2000-004
Title	On Observability of Signal Over Background
Author(s)	Bityukov, S I (Serpukhov, IHEP) ; Krasnikov, N V (Moscow, INR)
Publication	Geneva : CERN, 2000
Imprint	27 Jan 2000
Number of pages	17
In:	Workshop on Confidence Limits, pp.219-235
DOI	10.5170/CERN-2000-005.219
Subject category	Detectors and Experimental Techniques
Accelerator/Facility, Experiment	CERN LHC ; CMS
Free keywords	PHYSICS ; SOFTWARE
Abstract	Several criteria used by physicists to quantify the ratio of signal to background in planned experiments are compared. An equal probabilities test is proposed for the evaluation of the uncertainty in planned search experiments. We also considered a probability of discovery as a quantity for comparison of proposals for future search experiments.
Copyright/License	Preprint: (License: CC-BY-4.0)