HistFitter has been used extensively by the ATLAS Collaboration to analyze big datasets originating from proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Since 2012 HistFitter has been the standard statistical tool in searches for supersymmetric particles performed by ATLAS. HistFitter is a programmable and flexible framework to build, book-keep, fit, interpret and present results of data models of nearly arbitrary complexity.
It extends existing statistics tools in four key areas:
Programmable framework: HistFitter performs complete statistical analyses of pre-formatted input data samples, from a single user-defined configuration file, by putting together tools from several sources in a coherent and programmable framework.
Analysis strategy: HistFitter has built-in concepts of control, signal and validation regions, which are used to constrain, extrapolate and validate data model predictions across an analysis. The framework also introduces a statistically rigorous treatment of the validation regions.
Bookkeeping: HistFitter can keep track of numerous data models, including all generated input histograms, both before and after adjustment to measured data, and can perform statistical tests and model-parameter scans of all these models in an organized way. This introduces a powerful additional level of abstraction, which aids the processing of large collections of signal hypothesis tests.
Presentation and interpretation: HistFitter provides a collection of methods to determine the statistical significance of signal hypotheses, estimate the quality of likelihood fits, and produce publication-quality tables and plots expressing these results.
More information on HistFitter is at: http://histfitter.web.cern.ch/histfitter/
In this tutorial we provide an introduction to HistFitter on the first day and will discuss advanced topics on the second day, like:
- Fit stability
- Correct implementation of systematic uncertainties
- Configurations of model independent limit fits
and more.
The HistFitter Tutorial will be two full days.
The registration fee is 20 Euro, to be paid upon arrival.
There will be a reception on Monday evening.
