in Physicum, room D117
Weeks 3-9, 11-18
Exercise session Thursdays 14.15-16.00
in Physicum, room D117
Starting week 5
Lecturer Kenneth Österberg
Physicum, 3rd floor, room B323, reception Fridays 13-15
E-mail: kenneth.osterberg(at)helsinki.fi
Exercises Jan Welti
Physicum, 3rd floor, room A312
E-mail: jan.welti(at)helsinki.fi
- Lecture notes available here (pdf)
- Course material:
G.Cowan: Statistical Data Analysis (Oxford University Press 1998)
- A comprehensive reference of Statistical Methods in Physics. Contains both theoretical background and practical examples. Highly recommended.
R.J. Barlow: Statistics - A Guide to the Use of Statistical Methods in the Physical Sciences (John Wiley & Sons 1989)
- A very practical introductory book to Statistics Methods in Physics. Lots of English humour. Recommended.
Particle Data Group Reviews on Probability, Statistics & Monte Carlo Techniques (press link "Mathematical tools")
- Good but rather condensed summaries available on the web. Written by G.Cowan.
- Fundamental concepts: experimental errors and their correct interpretation, frequentist & Bayesian interpretation of probability, the most common distributions and their applications.
- MC methods & statistical tests: basic principles of Monte Carlo methods, the concepts of a hypothesis, a test statistic and the basic principles for the rejection of a hypothesis.
- Parameter & error estimation: the concept of estimation, the maximum likelihood method (suurimman uskottavuuden menetelmä) and the method of least squares (pienimmän neliösumman menetelmä).
- Confidence intervals & Unfolding (only if time allows).
Exercises (10 papers) gives at maximum 30 points (weight: 50 %),
Home exam gives at maximum 30 points (weight: 50 %),
Written exam gives at maximum 30 points (weight: 50 %).
The two best of these three will be used for making the course grade
(you may choose to do only one out of the two exams if you wish).
Exercises will be given latest on Thursdays, notification by e-mail, to be returned following Wednesday before 12.00 Finnish time.
Exercise papers available here (pdf).
To be returned either to the locked box (rightmost row, 2nd from bottom) at Physicum's 2nd floor or by e-mail to jan.welti(at)helsinki.fi
Model answers to exercises available here (pdf).
Home exam starts Wednesday May 23rd 2012 at 9am: available here
Return your solutions latest by Friday May 25th 2012 at 4pm.
Home exam and course results.
Written exam at departmental exam on Wednesday June 13th at 12am in D101
NB! participants must register for the exam in WebOodi latest by June 4th at 12am.
Previous exams: February 11th 2009, June 17th 2009, August 17th 2011.
First lecture on Fri 20.1.2012 !!
No lecture on Fri 3.2.2012 (lecturer traveling)!!
Send any comments or questions about this page to kenneth.osterberg(at)helsinki.fi