Statistical Uncertainties Of The V(N){2k} Harmonics From Q Cumulants

Analytic formulas to calculate statistical uncertainties of v(n){2k} harmonics extracted from the Q cumulants are presented. The Q cumulants are multivariate polynomial functions of the weighted means of 2m-particle azimuthal correlations, << 2m >>. Variances and covariances of the << 2m >> are included in the analytic formulas of the uncertainties that can be calculated simultaneously with the calculations of the v(n){2k} harmonics. The calculations are performed using a simple toy model, which roughly simulates elliptic flow azimuthal anisotropy with magnitudes around 0.05. The results are compared with the results obtained by the many data subsets, and by the bootstrapping method. The first one is a common way of estimation of the statistical uncertainties of the v(n){2k} harmonics in a real experiment. In order to increase precision in the measurement of the v(n){2k} harmonics, a large number of 15 000 subsets and the same number of the resampling in the bootstrap method is used. Unlike the other ways of the analytic calculation of the v(n){2k} statistical uncertainties, our proposal that includes the use of squared weights in the calculation of both the variances and covariances, gives the best agreement with the results obtained from the subsets and bootstrap method. Additionally, a recurrence equation between Q cumulants of any order is also presented.