Thursday, June 02, 2011

CDF "Bump" Gets To Almost 5-Sigma

Looks like the "bump" in the data gets to be more "definite".

A new report based on the latest presentation of the data on that bump that was reported earlier, seems to show that the latest set of data has pushed the statistical significance from 3-sigma to almost 5-sigma.

At the time, CDF was looking for slightly rare di-boson pairs – W bosons produced in association with another W or a Z boson. It noted a bump between 120 and 160 GeV /C2 in the jets produced in the collisions with a statistical significance of about “three-sigma”, which meant that the result would not be considered valuable until a “five-sigma” statistical significance could be established. The new data, however, have established a significance that is officially “closer to five sigma” (unconfirmed sources suggest it is as close as 4.8) and that “it was not just a statistical fluctuation” and that it is now a “serious issue for CDF to understand this”, according to Punzi.

I suppose at this point, it should be taken seriously. But D0 and LHC have not offered any kind of support for such an observation. The data could produce a 10-sigma data for all we care, but without corresponding verification from D0 especially, it will be very difficult to be convinced of such an event, considering the amount of statistical processing that one has to do with the data.

Zz.

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