Extraordinary Claims: the 0.000029% Solution

by Tommaso Dorigo (Padua)

Wednesday 25 Feb 2015, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/Brussels

E/3rd floor-E.349 - Seminar room (E.349) (Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve))

The five-sigma criterion is an established standard in High-Energy Physics and astrophysics for the claim of a new discovery, as evidenced e.g. in the recent observation of a new Higgs boson at 125 GeV by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. But where does the 5-sigma rule come from, and what is its rationale ? In this presentation I will explain the genesis of that standard criterion and discuss in detail its benefits and shortcomings, the implications, and possible improvements.