- #1
spaghetti3451
- 1,344
- 34
Hi I had to write a program to simulate the pion branching fraction in a pion two body decay.
To begin with, the pion decays either to a positron or to a muon which again decays to a positron.
So, the pion beam hits a target and decays at rest to positrons. Then the positrons fly off in random directions. I have written a piece of code that randomises the direction of the momentum of the positrons.
The positrons then hit a spherical shell (the detector) which extends in theta from 40 degrees to 140 degrees and in phi from -pi to pi.
This means that not all the positrons hit the detector and the acceptance (fraction of them hitting the detector) is less than one.
Now, I have used calculus to determine the acceptance to be 0.766. Am I right?
To calculate the aceptance numerically, I had to separate the positrons from the pion decay and the positrons from the muon decay. The first type has a fixed energy and the second is random. Next, I used that criteria to draw a histogram and found the values to be 0.776 and 0.780.
Now, I have been asked if the values I found are consistent within their statistical errors?
What does that mean?
To begin with, the pion decays either to a positron or to a muon which again decays to a positron.
So, the pion beam hits a target and decays at rest to positrons. Then the positrons fly off in random directions. I have written a piece of code that randomises the direction of the momentum of the positrons.
The positrons then hit a spherical shell (the detector) which extends in theta from 40 degrees to 140 degrees and in phi from -pi to pi.
This means that not all the positrons hit the detector and the acceptance (fraction of them hitting the detector) is less than one.
Now, I have used calculus to determine the acceptance to be 0.766. Am I right?
To calculate the aceptance numerically, I had to separate the positrons from the pion decay and the positrons from the muon decay. The first type has a fixed energy and the second is random. Next, I used that criteria to draw a histogram and found the values to be 0.776 and 0.780.
Now, I have been asked if the values I found are consistent within their statistical errors?
What does that mean?