What are backgrounds
- Backgrounds can manifest in your analysis for different reasons
- It’s almost impossible to eliminate all backgrounds in collider experiments
Data-driven background estimation
- The simplest data-driven approach to background estimates is the sideband approach
- This can be good enough for a first-order estimate when there is an obvious peak
Simulation-based background estimation
- Awkward arrays allow for a simplified syntax when making cuts to select the data
- You need to be careful to distinguish between cuts on events and cuts on particles