A data-driven convergence criterion for iterative unfolding of smeared spectra

A data-driven convergence criterion for the D'Agostini (Richardson-Lucy) iterative unfolding is presented. It relies on the unregularized spectrum (infinite number of iterations), and allows a safe estimation of the bias and undercoverage induced by truncating the algorithm. In addition, situations where the response matrix is not perfectly known are also discussed, and show that in most cases the unregularized spectrum is not an unbiased estimator of the true distribution. Whenever a bias is introduced, either by truncation of by poor knowledge of the response, a way to retrieve appropriate coverage properties is proposed.