Statistical Data Analysis (Oxford Science Publications) - Hardcover

Cowan, Glen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198501560 ISBN 13: 9780198501565

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1998

Synopsis

This book is a guide to the practical application of statistics to data analysis in the physical sciences. It is primarily addressed at students and professionals who need to draw quantitative conclusions from experimental data. Although most of the examples are taken from particle physics, the material is presented in a sufficiently general way as to be useful to people from most branches of the physical sciences. The first part of the book describes the basic tools of data analysis: concepts of probability and random variables, Monte Carlo techniques, statistical tests, and methods of parameter estimation. The last three chapters then develop more advanced statistical ideas, focusing on interval estimation, characteristic functions, and correcting distributions for the effects of measurement errors (unfolding).

About this title

About the Author:

Dr Glen D. Cowan, CERN, PPE Division, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland, Tel: +41 22 767 6539, Fax: +41 22 767 9425, Email: glen.cowan@cern.ch
Glen Cowan received his Ph.D. in physics in 1988 from the University of California, Berkeley, after completing his thesis work on particle production in high energy electron-positron collisions. From there he moved to Europe, and has held positions at the Max Planck Institute in Munich and the
University of Siegen, Germany. For most of this time, he has been based at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. He is a member of the ALEPH experiment at the electron positron collider LEP.

Review:

"Glen Cowan is a particle physicist who seems to have got everything right. Results are stated clearly, without mathematical proof but with enough explanation to satisfy the physicist's need to understand not only how, but also why...Those teaching an advanced undergraduate or graduate course
in statistics or physicists will find this a good textbook...Do not be fooled by the fact that it does not have the "textbook look" - the exercises have been made available separately on a Web site. " CERN Courier

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0198501560
• ISBN 13: 9780198501565
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216