Seminário

Finders, Keepers: Statistical fluctuations, causality, and whatnot in particle physics (Evento cancelado)

Transmissão através de Videoconferência

Evento cancelado.


Speaker: Pietro Vischia (Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL).

Classical hypothesis testing constitutes the backbone upon which scientific results are produced in most fields, but it is now under attack as a facilitator of the socalled reproducibility crisis. Although classical testing has been paramount to the discovery of the Higgs boson and the "five-sigma" threshold is considered more robust than the two-sigma threshold used in other fields, the approach has intrinsic limitations even in particle physics.

I will review the classical approach, comparing it with the Bayesian one, and delve into a few spectacular examples of "flukes" from particle physics.

Finally I will give a few perspectives in view of the latest debates on the topics of severe testing and causality in statistical inference.

Video: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/99842372416.

11h30
LIP - Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas