Quote:
Originally Posted by RobF
Yes, exciting times to get a 2nd signal so quickly!
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They detect one of these every couple of weeks or so. The reason we don't hear about them is that the analysis takes so long and the scientists won't reveal anything until they are absolutely sure that it's the real deal and not noise or (pardon the pun) interference from other sources.
In these early stages of new discovery experimental physicists are very stringent. They want to be very certain that what they're seeing is real before publishing it. To do things properly they have the Five Sigma rule, which means they are better than 99.9999% sure, or there is less than one in a million chance they're wrong (winning Tattslotto kind of odds). Sixty Symbols explains:
https://youtu.be/ThP51oPttS0