On hypothesis testing, trials factor, hypertests and the BumpHunter

Abstract

A detailed presentation of hypothesis testing is given. The "look elsewhere" effect is illustrated, and a treatment of the trials factor is proposed with the introduction of hypothesis hypertests. An example of such a hypertest is presented, named BumpHunter, which is used in the recent ATLAS dijet resonance search, and in an earlier version in the CDF Global Search, to look for exotic phenomena in high energy physics. As a demonstration, the BumpHunter is used to address Problem 1 of the Banff Challenge.