Statistical practice at the Belle experiment, and some questions

Abstract

The Belle collaboration operates a general-purpose detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy e + e − collider, performing a wide range of measurements in beauty, charm, tau and 2-photon physics. In this paper, the treatment of statistical problems in past and present Belle measurements is reviewed. Some open questions, such as the preferred method for quoting rare decay results, and the statistical treatment of the new B 0 /B 0 → π + π − analysis, are discussed.

Presentation of search results: theCLstechnique

“…Yabsely posed this question in his talk on statistics issues in the Belle experiment [17]. Likelihood ratio tests of the various hypotheses can be performed and, depending on the sensitivity of the experiment, can rule out various regions of the parameter space due to inconsistency with observation, but we can never prove, for example, that there is precisely no CP-violation since we can never design or perform an experiment that is sensitive to an infinitesimal amount of CP-violation.…”