Golden Bars of Consensus and the Truth Quark

Frank D. Tony Smith; jr

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Golden Bars of Consensus and the Truth Quark

Frank D. Tony Smith·jr

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Abstract

Scientists are imprisoned by Golden Bars of Consensus, says Burton Richter (hep-ex/0001012). A case in point is the mass of the Truth Quark. The consensus analysis of the experimental data indicates that the mass of the Truth Quark is about 170 GeV. On the other hand, an alternative analysis of the same data indicates that the mass of the Truth Quark is about 130 GeV. If the design of future experiments, including trigger, event selection, data analysis procedures, error analysis, etc., takes into account only the consensus value, and if the consensus value happens to be incorrect, then results of future experiments might be compromised.

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Frank D. Tony Smith, jr. 2002-05-14. Golden Bars of Consensus and the Truth Quark. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0006041

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