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13
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2answers
1k views

Did the researchers at Fermilab find a fifth force?

Please consider the publication Invariant Mass Distribution of Jet Pairs Produced in Association with a W boson in $p\bar{p}$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV by the CDF-Collaboration, ...
2
votes
2answers
98 views

Question about interpreting PDG particle cross section data sets' metadata fields

I have some question about interpreting PDG particle cross section data sets' metadata fields. The data sets I'm having questions for are http://pdg.lbl.gov/2011/hadronic-xsections/hadron.html For ...
4
votes
1answer
392 views

What is meant by “combinatorial background” in experimental high energy physics

My guess is that they find a certain tracks coming from a certain source by "combintaorially" selecting all track pairs and finding their invariant mass. If this is true, of which I am not sure, how ...
3
votes
1answer
354 views

Fitting to a high density scatter plot

I am trying to do a crude particle identification, using a Bethe Bloch tenchnique. Here is a plot I made from the data that I have From what I've read, the standard method to identify charged ...
5
votes
1answer
176 views

Finding coefficient of proportionality

Recently in my AP Physics class I did a lab in which I measured k for a spring by setting up an oscillating system with it, and timing the period, repeating for different masses. Since ...
3
votes
1answer
161 views

Lab observation correct? As distance decreases, velocity increases, stderr decreases

The experiment goes like this: Allow a moving cart to move from the top of an incline plane ($x_0$) downwards. The time taken will be recorded by the picket fence (those things you see wired up). ...
1
vote
1answer
81 views

Variance of Nested Experimental Uncertainty

I have to find the uncertainty of a quantity $Q$ doing two mean values. For example for a set of parameters I measure ten times $Q$, I obtain a mean value $Q_1$ and variance ${\rm Var}(Q_1)$. Then for ...
1
vote
3answers
242 views

Sunspots formula

I used the package 'EUREQA', version Formulize, to analyse the monthly smoothed sunspot timeseries from 1750 till 2010. It gives me a simple formula, with 8 coefficients, that match data with a ...
0
votes
1answer
43 views

Dealing with experimental data

I have some experimental data about a value $n$, now, I am supposed to give, in the ending, a single value with an error: $n=a\pm b $. I have originally 6 values of $n$, each one comes as an indirect ...