Reinterpretion of Experimental Results with Basis Templates

Abstract

Experimental analysis of data from particle collisions is typically expressed as statistical limits on a few benchmark models of particular, often historical, interest. The implications of the data for other theoretical models (current or future) may be powerful, but they cannot typically be calculated from the published information, except in the simplest case of a single-bin counting experiment. We present a novel solution to this long-standing problem by expressing the new model as a linear combination of models from published experimental analysis, allowing for the trivial calculation of limits on a nearly arbitrary model. We present tests in simple toy experiments, demonstrate self-consistency by using published results to reproduce other published results on the same spectrum, and provide a reinterpretation of a search for chiral down-type heavy quarks ($b'$) in terms of a search for an exotic heavy quark ($T$) with similar but distinct phenomenology. We find $m_T>419$ GeV at 95% CL, currently the strongest limits if the $T$ quark decays via $T\rightarrow Wb, T\rightarrow tZ$ and $T\rightarrow tH$.