The need to perform γ-ray measurements with HpGe detectors is a common technique in many fields such as
nuclear physics, radiochemistry,
nuclear medicine and neutron activation analysis. The use
of HpGe detectors is chosen in situations where isotope identification is needed because
of their excellent resolution. Our challenge is to obtain the &
ldquo;best” spectroscopy data possible in every measurement situation. &
ldquo;Best” is a combination
of statistical (number
of counts) and spectral quality (peak, width and position) over a wide range
of counting rates. In this framework, we applied Bayesian methods and the Ellipsoidal Nested Sampling (a multidimensional integration technique) to study the most likely distribution for the shape
of HpGe spectra. In treating these experiments, the prior information suggests to model the likelihood function with a product
of Poisson distributions. We present the efforts that have been done in order to optimize the statistical methods to HpGe detector outputs with the aim to evaluate to a better order
of precision the detector efficiency, the absolute measured activity and the spectra background.
Reaching a more precise knowledge of statistical and systematic uncertainties for the measured physical observables is the final goal of this research project.