Statistical bias in isotope ratios

Christopher D. Coath; Robert C. J. Steele; W. Fred Lunnon

doi:10.1039/C2JA10205F

Statistical bias in isotope ratios

Christopher D. Coath, Robert C. J. Steele, W. Fred Lunnon

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This paper presents the mathematics of the systematic bias in the expected value of the ratio of two noise- corrected Poisson-distributed variables, such as ion counting measurements. Such bias can lead to the reporting of incorrect ratios and, in some cases, systematic correlations with other measurements which can impact the scientific interpretation. We describe a novel method of treating such measurements which results in a negligible, exponentially small bias. We also re-examine the conventional approach deriving an exact expression for the bias including the noise correction explicitly.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	52-58
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry
Volume	28
Issue number	1
Early online date	13 Nov 2012
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/C2JA10205F
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2013

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© 2018 The Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1039/C2JA10205F
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title = "Statistical bias in isotope ratios",

abstract = "This paper presents the mathematics of the systematic bias in the expected value of the ratio of two noise- corrected Poisson-distributed variables, such as ion counting measurements. Such bias can lead to the reporting of incorrect ratios and, in some cases, systematic correlations with other measurements which can impact the scientific interpretation. We describe a novel method of treating such measurements which results in a negligible, exponentially small bias. We also re-examine the conventional approach deriving an exact expression for the bias including the noise correction explicitly.",

author = "Coath, {Christopher D.} and Steele, {Robert C. J.} and Lunnon, {W. Fred}",

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AB - This paper presents the mathematics of the systematic bias in the expected value of the ratio of two noise- corrected Poisson-distributed variables, such as ion counting measurements. Such bias can lead to the reporting of incorrect ratios and, in some cases, systematic correlations with other measurements which can impact the scientific interpretation. We describe a novel method of treating such measurements which results in a negligible, exponentially small bias. We also re-examine the conventional approach deriving an exact expression for the bias including the noise correction explicitly.

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JO - Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry

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Statistical bias in isotope ratios

Abstract

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