Nuclear effects in extracting ${\sin }^2{\theta }_W$ and a probe for short-range correlations

Abstract

We investigate the neutral-current neutrino-nucleon deep inelastic scattering with particular emphasis on short-range correlation and EMC effect, as well as their impact on the weak-mixing angle ${\sin }^2{\theta }_W$ determination. The ratios of structure function $F_{2(NC)}^A$ and $x{F}_{3(NC)}^A$ are presented where the nuclei $A$ are chosen as carbon, iron and lead. One kind of universal modification function is proposed which would provide a nontrivial test of SRC universality on the platform of neutrino-nucleon DIS. In addition, we study the impact of ``SRC-driven'' nuclear effects on the extraction of ${\sin }^2{\theta }_W$ which is naturally associated with the renowned NuTeV anomaly. The results indicate that these effects may account for a substantial fraction of the NuTeV anomaly and considerably affect the value of extracted ${\sin }^2{\theta }_W$.

8 pages, 7 figures