FindPeaksMD should apply some validity check to the peaks returned.

[mantid-builder]

This issue was originally TRAC 6304

Original Reporter: @DennisMikkelson

Currently, FindPeaksMD always returns the number of peaks requested. Since the peaks are found and returned in order of decreasing magnitude, if the user requests too many peaks, the list will include many false "noise" peaks at the end of the list. This also seriously impacts the execution time, since many lower intensity boxes must be checked to find those that are far enough away from previously found peaks.

Some possible validity checks (in order of increasing difficulty) include:

1. The peak intensity should be above a minimum threshold specified by the user.
2. The total intensity inside the peak region should be at least some multiple of the average background noise.
3. The net integrated intensity of the peak divided by its estimated standard deviation should be above a minimum theshold (eg. 3).

It should work to add an option to FindPeaksMD, such as "Check Validity". If this option is selected, the algorithm could initially find the peaks in the same way it currently does, but then discard any peak not passing the validity check(s).

[mantid-builder]

@NickDraper (2013-04-29T09:49:55):
Moved to r2.6 at the end of r2.5

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@NickDraper (2013-07-26T13:55:00):
Moved to backlog at the code freeze for R2.6

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@NickDraper (2014-02-14T11:04:58):
Bulk move to assigned at the introduction of the triage step

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