Spey: smooth inference for reinterpretation studies

Abstract

Statistical models serve as the cornerstone for hypothesis testing in empirical studies. This paper introduces a new cross-platform Python-based package designed to utilise different likelihood prescriptions via a flexible plug-in system. This framework empowers users to propose, examine, and publish new likelihood prescriptions without developing software infrastructure, ultimately unifying and generalising different ways of constructing likelihoods and employing them for hypothesis testing within a unified platform. We propose a new simplified likelihood prescription, surpassing previous approximation accuracies by incorporating asymmetric uncertainties. Moreover, our package facilitates the integration of various likelihood combination routines, thereby broadening the scope of independent studies through a meta-analysis. By remaining agnostic to the source of the likelihood prescription and the signal hypothesis generator, our platform allows for the seamless implementation of packages with different likelihood prescriptions, fostering compatibility and interoperability.

30 pages, 8 figures. corrections in the text

References in corpus (8)

• An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
• LHAPDF6: parton density access in the LHC precision era
• MadAnalysis 5, a user-friendly framework for collider phenomenology
• Robust Independent Validation of Experiment and Theory: Rivet version 3
• Designing and recasting LHC analyses with MadAnalysis 5
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Monojets reveal overlapping excesses for light compressed higgsinos
• Seeking a coherent explanation of LHC excesses for compressed spectra
• Local Baryon Number at the LHC
• Staying on Top of SMEFT-Likelihood Analyses
• A joint explanation for the soft lepton and monojet LHC excesses in the wino-bino model
• Combination and Reinterpretation of LHC SUSY Searches
• A measurement of the high-mass $\tau \bar{\tau }$ production cross-section at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector and constraints on new particles and couplings
• Implementation of full and simplified likelihoods in CheckMATE
• Deciphering compressed electroweakino excesses with MadAnalysis 5