# Explanation of Contur and Rivet plot format¶

Heatmaps and contours

In the standard double-plot layout, the left hand plot shows the 95% an 68% (1 and 2 sigma) exclusion conturs, and sometimes also relevant limits from theortical constraints or from other measurements not used in Contur.

The right hand plot shows the binning heatmap from which the contour on the left is drawn. This indicates the actually parameter binning used, and shows the full range of sensitivity, according to the colour key on the far right.

Sometimes the binned heatmap is shown on its own.

Rivet plots

The plots all have two sections.

• The top shows the measurement (black point with error bars) compared to the sum of the measurement plus any contribution from the BSM scenario under consideration (red histogram). Where we have it available, the SM theory prediction is also shown as a green histogram, but this is for illustration only unless otherwise stated.

• The lower section displays the same information but now as a significance ratio of the stacked BSM+SM (red histogram) over the measurement. (SM is assumed to be the data, unless stated otherwise.). The yellow band indicates the 1 sigma deviation level (taking into account the uncertainties on the measurement and the MC statistical uncertainties on the BSM signal. (If the SM theory is used, the theory uncertainties are also included.) So, loosely, if the red histogram has an excursion beyond the yellow band, expect an exclusion of 68% or more (although correlations may affect that at some level).

If correlation information has not been used, then the number in square brackets in the legend indicates the bin number of the bin giving the exclusion (Contur will have used only the most discrepant bin, as a conservative way of accounting for correlated uncertainties). If correlations have been used, the legend will say “correlated all” since all bins can contribute. The number next to this is the c.l. of the exclusion (i.e. 1-p), either from that bin, or from the whole histogram in the correlated case.

Contur web page for a single parameter point

For a run on a single parameter point (yoda file), an html page with links to all the histograms may be produced using contur-mkhtml.

The main index page starts with the overall exclusion, and lists the parameters if the parameter file was available. Then the plots from each category which gave this exclusion are shown (only the most discrepant from each category is used). Below this is a comprehensive list of all plots considered, along with links to the experimental papers and the plots themselves.