Treatment of material radioassay measurements in projecting sensitivity for low-background experiments

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how to treat radioassay measurement results in sensitivity projections for low-background experiments, proposing a new method to report sensitivity that balances conservativeness and accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel figure of merit for sensitivity projections and a method to incorporate radioassay measurement results effectively.

Findings

Developed a figure of merit for sensitivity estimation

Proposed a new reporting method for sensitivity

Analyzed the impact of measurement treatment on projections

Abstract

By analyzing sensitivity projections as a statisical estimation problem, we evaluated different ways of treating radioassay measurement results (values and upper limits) when projecting sensitivity for low-background experiments. We developed a figure of merit that incorporates a notion of conservativeness to quantitatively explore the consequences of attempts to bias sensitivity projections, and proposed a method to report sensitivity.