Asymptotic neutrino-nucleon cross section and saturation effects

Abstract

In this paper we present a simple analytic expression for the (spin-averaged) neutrino-nucleon cross section for ultra-high energies at twist-2, obtained as the asymptotic limit of our previous findings. This expression gives values for the cross section in remarkable numerical agreement with the previous numerical evaluation in the energy region relevant for forthcoming neutrino experiments. Moreover, we discuss the role and the relevance of saturation and recombination effects in our approach, in comparison with other recent suggestions.

19 pages, 2 figures