Probability and Statistics in Experimental Physics

This work is a practical introduction to the use of probability and statistics in experimental physics for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. It is intended as a practical guide, not a comprehensive text in probability and statistics. The emphasis is on applications and understanding, on theorems and techniques that are actually used in experimental physics. Proofs of theorems are generally omitted unless they contribute to the intuition in understanding and applying the theorem. The problems, some with worked solutions, introduce the student to the use of computers; occasional references made to some of the FORTRAN routines available in the CERN library, but other systems, such as Maple, will also be useful. Topics covered basic concepts and definitions; general results, independent of specific distrubutions; discrete distributions; the normal distribution and other continuous distributions; generating and characteristic functions; the Monte Carlo method and computer simulations; multi-dimensional distributions; the central limit theorem; inverse probability and confidence limits; estimation methods; curve fitting, robustness estimates, and likelihood ratios; interpolating functions and unfolding problems; fitting data with constraints; and robust estimation methods.

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This book is the second edition ... of a practical introduction into probability and statistics in experimental physics. The book is primarily written for undergraduate and graduate students and contains a new chapter on queueing theory and an additional discussion of the Feldman-Cousins unified method for estimating confidence intervals." (Ulrich Horst, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1011, 2003)

"The book under review is rather unconventional in many respects, in particular concerning the choice of covered topics and the style of presentation. ... Its main goal is to provide the reader with techniques actually used in experimental research. They are illustrated by a series of worked problems. ... some material is included that one hardly finds in other books of this kind, like elements of queuing theory ... . many experimental physicists would appreciate probably to have a copy of this book within hand-reach." (F. Binon, Physicalia, Vol. 38 (5), 2002)