Ultra-High Energy Neutrino-Nucleon Cross Section and Radiative Corrections

Abstract

A cubic kilometer scale experiment has been proposed to detect cosmic neutrinos of energy from tens of GeV up to the highest energies observed for cosmic rays, around 10**20 eV, or possibly even beyond. Detection efficiencies depend crucially on the neutrino-nucleon cross section at these energies at which radiative corrections beyond the lowest order approximation could become non-negligible. The differential cross sections can be modified by more than 50% in some regions of phase space. Estimates of corrections to the quantities most relevant for neutrino detection at these energies give, however, less dramatic effects: The average inelasticity in the outgoing lepton is increased from about 0.19 to 0.24. The inclusive cross section is reduced by roughly half a percent. The dominant uncertainty of the standard model ultra-high energy neutrino-nucleon cross section therefore still comes from uncertainties of the parton distributions in the nucleon at very low momentum fractions.

arXiv comment4 latex pages, 3 encapsulated postscript figures included, uses revtex.sty in two-column format and epsf.sty. Submitted to Physical Review D

References in corpus (7)

• Ultrahigh-Energy Neutrino Interactions
• Particle Physics with High Energy Neutrinos
• Global QCD Analysis and the CTEQ Parton Distributions
• Extremely High Energy Neutrinos and their Detection
• Cosmological Neutrino Signatures for Grand Unification Scale Physics
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• Measurement of the $e^{+}$ and $e^{-}$ induced charged current cross sections at HERA

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Origin and Propagation of Extremely High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Cosmic Neutrinos and New Physics beyond the Electroweak Scale
• Neutrino Propagation Through Matter
• Methods to Determine Neutrino Flux at Low Energies:Investigation of the Low $\nu$ Method
• Gravireggeons in Extra Dimensions and Interaction of Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Neutrinos with Nucleons
• An Analysis of the Time-Dependent CP Asymmetry in $B\to \pi \pi$ Decays in the Standard Model
• Interactions of cosmic neutrinos with nucleons in the RS model
• Final state radiation from high and ultrahigh energy neutrino interactions