A method for comparing non-nested models with application to astrophysical searches for new physics

Understand

Searches for unknown physics and decisions between competing astrophysical models to explain data both rely on statistical hypothesis testing.

• The usual approach in searches for new physical phenomena is based on the statistical Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT) and its asymptotic properties.
• In the common situation, when neither of the two models under comparison is a special case of the other i.e., when the hypotheses are non-nested, this test is not applicable.
• In astrophysics, this problem occurs when two models that reside in different parameter spaces are to be compared.