We argue that significant probability of protons with momenta above their Fermi surface leads for proton concentrations p/n > 1/8 to the enhancement of termally excited direct and modified URCA processes within a cold neutron star, and to a nonzero probability of direct URCA processes for small proton concentrations (p/n < 1/8). We evaluate high momentum tails of neutron, proton and electrons distributions within a neutron star. We expect also significantly faster neutrino cooling of hyperon stars.
Next generation kilometer-scale neutrino telescopes, such as ICECUBE, can test standard model predictions for neutrino-nucleon cross sections at energies well beyond the reach of collider experiments. At energies near a PeV and higher, the Earth becomes opaque to neutrinos. At these energies, the ratio of upgoing and downgoing events can be used to measure the total neutrino-nucleon cross section given the presence of an adequate high energy neutrino flux.
Ultra-high energy ($E_ν>10^8 $ GeV) neutrino-nucleon total cross sections $σ^{νN}$ are estimated from a soft non-perturbative model complemented by an approximate QCD evolution, explicitly calculated. The resulting asymptotic energy behavior of the neutrino-nucleon charged-current total cross section is derived analytically and predictions concerning the observation of ultra-high energy neutrinos in future experiments are presented.
We present the results on non-perturbative quantum gravity effects related to extra dimensions which can be comparable, in some cases, with the SM contributions, e.g. in lepton-lepton or lepton-nucleon scattering. The case of cosmic neutrino gravitational interaction with atmospheric nucleons is considered in detail.
We consider the scattering of the brane fields due to t-channel massive graviton exchanges in the Randall-Sundrum model. The eikonal amplitude is analytically calculated and both differential and total neutrino-nucleon cross sections are estimated. The event rate of quasi-horizontal air showers induced by cosmic neutrinos, which can be detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory, is presented for two different fluxes of cosmogenic neutrinos.
We derive the cross section of neutrino-nucleon scatterings in supernova magnetic fields, including weak-magnetism and recoil corrections. Since the weak interaction violates the parity, the scattering cross section asymmetrically depends on the directions of the neutrino momenta to the magnetic field; the origin of pulsar kicks may be explained by the mechanism. An asymmetric neutrino emission (a drift flux) due to neutrino-nucleon scatterings is absent at the leading level of $\mathcal O(μ_BB/T)$, where $μ_B$ is the nucleon magneton, $B$ is the magnetic field strength, and $T$ is the matter …
In light of recent measurements of the nucleon structure function in the small-$x$ deep-inelastic regime at HERA and the consequently improved theoretical understanding of the quark distributions in this range of parton fractional momentum, we present new results for the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra high energies, up to $ E_ν \sim 10^{21}$ eV. The results are relevant to deep underground muon detectors looking for such neutrinos. For $\simeq 10^{20}$ eV neutrinos, our cross sections are about a factor of $4$ to $10$ times larger than the previously reported results by Reno, Quigg an…
We argue that high gluon density effects at small $x$ are important for the calculation of ultra-high energy neutrino nucleon cross sections due to the phenomenon of geometric scaling. We calculate the cross section for $νN \to μX$, including high gluon density effects, using the all twist formalism of McLerran and Venugopalan and show that it can be related to the dipole nucleon cross section measured in DIS experiments. For neutrino energies of $E_ν\sim 10^{12}$ GeV, the geometric scaling region extends all the way up to $Q^2 \sim M^2_{W}$. We show that geometric scaling can lead to an {\it …
At temperatures less than a few MeV, the efficiency of the neutrino-pair bremsstrahlung from nucleons interracting with the condensed pion field is much less than previously estimated by other authors. The physical reason for this is a periodic structure of the developed pion condensate. The repeated interactions of a nucleon with the periodic pion field modify the nucleon spectrum, which is split into two bands. The energy gap between the bands is about a few MeV or larger, even if the amplitude of the pion field is small compared with the pion mass.
The interaction of neutrinos with nucleons in the envelope of a remnant of collapse with a strong magnetic field during the passage of the main neutrino flux is investigated. General expressions are derived for the reaction rates and for the energy-momentum transferred to the medium through the neutrino scattering by nucleons and in the direct URCA processes. Parameters of the medium in a strong magnetic field are calculated under the condition of quasi-equilibrium with neutrinos. Numerical estimates are given for the neutrino mean free paths and for the density of the force acting on the enve…
New structure function data at small Bjorken $x$ from HERA are used along with next-to-leading order QCD evolution to predict a cross section for charged-current interactions of ultrahigh energy neutrinos with nucleons. This new result is over twice the size of previous estimates and has important implications for cosmic ray experiments now underway as well as for KM3 arrays (cubic kilometer-scale neutrino telescopes) now in the planning stages.
Extraterrestrial neutrinos can initiate deeply developing air showers, and those that traverse the atmosphere unscathed may produce cascades in the ice or water. Up to now, no such events have been observed. This can be translated into upper limits on the diffuse neutrino flux. On the other hand, the observation of cosmic rays with primary energies > 10^{10} GeV suggests that there is a guaranteed flux of cosmogenic neutrinos, arising from the decay of charged pions (and their muon daughters) produced in proton interactions with the cosmic microwave background. In this work, armed with these c…
The energy--zenith angular event distribution in a neutrino telescope provides a unique tool to determine at the same time the neutrino-nucleon cross section at extreme kinematical regions, and the high energy neutrino flux. By using a simple parametrization for fluxes and cross sections, we present a sensitivity analysis for the case of a km^3 neutrino telescope. In particular, we consider the specific case of an under-water Mediterranean telescope placed at the NEMO site, although most of our results also apply to an under-ice detector such as IceCube. We determine the sensitivity to departu…
In this talk we would like to present recent calculations of the cross sections for the ultrahigh energy neutrinos interacting with nucleons. We briefly present the framework of unifed BFKL/DGLAP equations which resums all the leading log(1/x) effects as well as the subleading terms. The few free parameters which specify the input parton distributions are determined by fitting to HERA deep inelastic data. We then use these parton distributions to calculate the cross section for the neutrino-nucleon interactions at very high energies, up to 10^12 GeV. We do also investigate the attenuation of n…
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, ho…
Neutrino and axion production in neutron stars occurs mainly as bremsstrahlung from nucleon-nucleon (NN) scattering. The energy radiated via neutrinos or axions is typically very small compared to other scales in the two-nucleon system. The rate of emission of such "soft" radiation is directly related to the on-shell NN amplitude, and thereby to the NN experimental data. This facilitates the model-independent calculation of the neutrino and axion radiation rates which is presented here. We find that the resultant rates are a factor of four below earlier estimates based on a one-pion-exchange N…
Neutrino Physics is now entering precision era and neutrino-nucleon cross sections are an im- portant ingredient in all neutrino oscillation experiments. Specially, precise knowledge of neutrino- nucleon cross sections in Ultra High Energy (UHE) regime (TeV-PeV) is becoming more important now, as several experiments worldwide are going to observe processes involving such UHE neutrinos. In this work, we present new results on neutrino-nucleon cross-sections in this UHE regime, using QCD.
We discuss W and Z production through the deep inelastic neutrino-nucleon scattering in the context of the standard model SU(3)x SU(2)x U(1) of the strong and electroweak interactions. We find the cross section rates for the process neutrino + nucleon --> lepton(-) + W(+) + X for the case of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos colliding on a target nucleon.
Quasielastic antineutrino/proton and neutrino/neutron scatterings can be well approximated by simple formulae, valid around MeV or GeV energies. We obtain a single expression valid in the whole range, and discuss its relevance for studies of supernova neutrinos, which reach intermediate energies.
We deduce the cosmogenic neutrino flux by jointly analysing ultra high energy cosmic ray data from HiRes-I and II, AGASA and the Pierre Auger Observatory. We make two determinations of the neutrino flux by using a model-dependent method and a model-independent method. The former is well-known, and involves the use of a power-law injection spectrum. The latter is a regularized unfolding procedure. We then use neutrino flux bounds obtained by the RICE experiment to constrain the neutrino-nucleon inelastic cross section at energies inaccessible at colliders. The cross section bounds obtained usin…
By means of a Monte Carlo cascade method, to account for the rescattering of the outgoing nucleon, we study the charged and neutral current inclusive one nucleon knockout reactions off nuclei induced by neutrinos. The nucleon emission process studied here is a clear signal for neutral--current neutrino driven reactions, and can be used in the analysis of future neutrino experiments.
In the hot and dense medium of a supernova (SN) core, the nucleon spins fluctuate so fast that the axial-vector neutrino opacity and the axion emissivity are expected to be significantly modified. Axions with $m_a\alt10^{-2}\,{\rm eV}$ are not excluded by SN~1987A. A substantial transfer of energy in neutrino-nucleon ($νN$) collisions is enabled which may alter the spectra of SN neutrinos relative to calculations where energy-conserving $νN$ collisions had been assumed near the neutrinosphere.
The possibility to determine the axial strange form factor of the nucleon from elastic neutrino-nucleon scattering experiments is studied. The existing experimental information is shortly mentioned and several observables which could be measured in the near future at new neutrino facilities are discussed.
Elastic scattering of neutrinos and antineutrinos on nucleons is considered. It is shown that the measurement of the neutrino-antineutrino asymmetry would allow to obtain model independent informations on the strange axial and vector form factors. The ratio of the magnetic form factors of the proton and neutron, on which the asymmetry depends, is investigated in detail. The asymmetry is calculated under different assumptions on the behavior of the strange vector and axial form factors.
We consider different methods and observables which can be obtained by the measurement of neutrino scattering off nucleons and nuclei with the purpose of finding evidence for the strange form factors of the nucleon, which enter into structure of the nucleonic weak neutral current.
A prime number based parametrization for total neutrino-nucleon cross section is presented. The method employs the relation between prime numbers and their indices to reproduce neutrino cross sections for neutrino energies from the $MeV$ to the $PeV$ regions where experimental data are available. This prime-index relation provides estimates of the neutrino-nucleon cross sections valid across many decades of neutrino energy scales. The $PeV$ data are from the recently published astrophysical $ν_μ+ \bar ν_μ$ rates in the IceCube detector as well as neutrino-nucleon cross section measurements. A …
We evaluate the charged current neutrino-nucleon total cross section up to neutrino energies of 10^{12} GeV in the LO and NLO of perturbative QCD within the framework of two different factorization schemes. The numerical implications of some inconsistent QCD calculations are illustrated.
It is shown that the specific space distribution of the nucleon axial charge may lead to the significant reduction of the cross section of the reaction $p+p\to D+e^++ν$ and may provide the mechanism to explain observed deficit of solar neutrinos.
We investigate the rates of production and thermalization of $ν_μ$ and $ν_τ$ neutrinos at temperatures and densities relevant to core-collapse supernovae and protoneutron stars. Included are contributions from electron scattering, electron-positron annihilation, nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung, and nucleon scattering. For the scattering processes, in order to incorporate the full scattering kinematics at arbitrary degeneracy, the structure function formalism developed by Reddy et al. (1998) and Burrows and Sawyer (1998) is employed. Furthermore, we derive formulae for the total and differential…
Measurements of the polarization of the final proton in elastic e-p scattering drastically changed our knowledge about the electromagnetic form factors of the proton. Here we present our results of the calculation of the polarization of the final nucleon in charged current quasi-elastic neutrino nucleon scattering. Relations which connect the axial form factor with the polarization, the cross section and the electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon are derived. Measurements of the polarization of the nucleon in the high-statistics short baseline neutrino experiments (or in near detectors of…
Electromagnetic structure functions for electron-proton scattering are used as a test of the QCD improved parton model at low and moderate Q. Two parameterizations which work well in ep scattering at low Q are used to evaluate the inelastic muon neutrino-nucleon and muon antineutrino-nucleon cross sections for energies between 1-10 GeV, of interest in long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Cross sections are reduced when these low-Q extrapolations are used.
In this paper we present an analytic result for the evolution in $Q^2$ of the structure functions for the neutrino-nucleon interaction, valid at twist-2 in the region of small values of the Bjorken $x$ variable and for soft non-perturbative input. In the special case of flat initial conditions, we include in the calculation also the contribution of the twist-4 gluon recombination corrections, whose effect in the evolution is explicitly determined. Finally, we estimate the resulting charged-current neutrino-nucleon total cross section and discuss its behavior at ultra-high energies.
We calculate the nucleon contribution to the electromagnetic vertex of a neutrino in a background of particles, including the effect of the anomalous magnetic moment of the nucleons. Explicit formulas for the form factors are given in various physical limits of practical interest. Several applications of the results are mentioned, including the effect of an external magnetic field on the dispersion relation of a neutrino in matter.
We present a unified approach to neutrino processes in nucleon matter based on Landau's theory of Fermi liquids that includes one- and two-quasiparticle-quasihole pair states as well as mean-field effects. We show how rates of neutrino processes involving two nucleons may be calculated in terms of the collision integral in the Landau transport equation for quasiparticles. Using a relaxation time approximation, we solve the transport equation for density and spin-density fluctuations and derive a general form for the response functions. We apply our approach to neutral-current processes in neut…
We investigate the pseudoscalar transition form factors of nucleon for quasi-elastic scattering and Δresonance production in tau-neutrino nucleon scattering via the charged current interactions. Although the pseudoscalar form factors play an important role for the τproduction in neutrino-nucleon scattering, these are not known well. In this article, we examine their effects in quasi-elastic scattering and Δresonance production and find that the cross section, Q^{2} distribution, and spin polarization of the produced τ^{\pm} leptons are quite sensitive to the pseudoscalar form factors.
We study the polarization vector of $τ^-$ ($τ^+$) leptons created in $ν_τ$ ($\barν_τ$) - Nucleon deep inelastic scattering. Our work is oriented toward ultra-high energy particles relevant for cosmic-rays experiments. The goal of this paper is to derive relevant informations to constrain the systematic uncertainties that follow from the lack of knowledge about this point particularly when studying Earth-skimming neutrinos.
In scenarios with the fundamental unification scale at the TeV one expects string excitations of the standard model fields at accessible energies. We study the neutrino-nucleon cross section in these models. We show that duality of the scattering amplitude forces the existence of a tower of massive leptoquarks that mediate the process in the s-channel. Using the narrow-width approximation we find a sum rule for the production rate of resonances with different spin at each mass level. We show that these contributions can increase substantially the standard model neutrino-nucleon cross section, …
We calculate neutrino processes involving two nucleons at subnuclear densities using chiral effective field theory. Shorter-range noncentral forces reduce the neutrino rates significantly compared with the one-pion exchange approximation currently used in supernova simulations. For densities rho < 10^{14} g cm^{-3}, we find that neutrino rates are well constrained by nuclear interactions and nucleon-nucleon scattering data. As an application, we calculate the mean-square energy transfer in scattering of a neutrino from nucleons and find that collision processes and spin-dependent mean-field ef…
Unitarity relates the total cross section for neutrino-nucleon scattering to the neutrino-nucleon forward scattering amplitude. Assuming the validity of the perturbative expansion of the forward amplitude in the {\em weak} coupling constant, we derive a unitarity bound on the inelastic cross section. The inelastic cross section saturates this bound at a typical neutrino energy $E_ν\simeq 10^8 {\rm GeV}$. This implies that calculations of the inelastic cross section that use current parton distribution functions and lowest order weak perturbation theory are unreliable above this energy.
The relations between neutrino NC and CC structure functions and cross sections, which are driven by isospin symmetry, are discussed for nucleons and nuclei.
We discuss the radiative corrections to charged and neutral current deep-inelastic neutrino--nucleon scattering in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). In particular, deviations from the Standard Model prediction for the ratios of neutral- to charged-current cross sections, $R^ν$ and $R^{\barν}$, are studied, and results of a scan over the MSSM parameter space are presented.
Using a recent parametrization of nuclear effects in parton distribution functions we calculate the neutrino-nucleon cross section at energies relevant for ultra high energy neutrino telescopes. The modification of the cross section in comparison with the calculation using parton densities in free nucleons is of the order of few per cent for the parameter range of interest in neutrino telescopes (A=10 and E=10$^6$ GeV) and it reaches 20 % at the highest energies (E=10$^{12}$ GeV) and for the largest nuclear size (A=190) considered.
We derive generic formulas for the polarization density matrix of leptons produced in neutrino and antineutrino collisions and briefly consider some important particular cases. Next we employ the general formalism in order to include the final lepton mass and spin into the popular model by Rein and Sehgal for single pion neutrinoproduction.
We study the nucleon contribution to the electromagnetic vertex function of neutrinos that propagate in a matter background in the presence of a magnetic field. Starting from the one-loop expression for the corresponding terms of the vertex function, and taking into account the anomalous magnetic coupling of the nucleons, we calculate the B-dependent part of the form factors that determine the induced charge of the neutrino. A formula for the neutrino induced charge is obtained, and it is evaluated for various illustrative situations. The terms due to the nucleons can be important in some case…
The origin of the ultra high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) showers has remained as a mystery among particle physicists and astrophysicists. In low scale gravity models, where the neutrino-nucleon cross section rises to typical hadronic values at energies above $10^{20}$ eV, the neutrino becomes a candidate for the primary that initiates these showers. We calculate the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra high energies by assuming that it is dominated by the production of p-branes. We show, using a generalized Randall-Sundrum model, that the neutrino-nucleon cross-section at neutrino energies of…
Future detectors of cosmic rays, such as EUSO and OWL, can test the Standard Model predictions for the neutrino interactions at energies well beyond the reach of any terrestrial experiment. The relative rates of horizontal and upgoing air showers, combined with the angular distribution of upgoing air showers will allow one to measure the neutrino-nucleon cross section at center-of-mass energy 10^5 GeV or higher.
Ultrahigh energy neutrinos can be used to explore the physics at the TeV scale. We study the neutrino-nucleon cross section in models with extra dimensions and the fundamental scale at the TeV. In particular, we discuss the production of string resonances and the gravitational interactions (multigraviton exchange and production of microscopic black holes) in these models. We show that the new TeV physics could give observable signals in horizontal air showers and neutrino telescopes.
Single pion production in neutrino-nucleon scattering is discussed. The neutrino energies characteristic for T2K project are considered. Two new parameterizations of $C_5^A$ axial form factor are proposed. Both of them are obtained in simultaneous fit to ANL and BNL data. One of them (which fits better to BNL data) leads to $dσ/dQ^2$ differential cross section which is significantly reduced at low $Q^2$.
The neutrino induced hyperon production processes $\barν_{e/μ} + p \to e^+/μ^+ + π+ Λ/Σ$ may provide a unique clean place for studying low energy $πΛ/Σ$ interaction and hyperon resonances below $KN$ threshold. The production rates for some neutrino induced hyperon production processes are estimated with theoretical models. Suggestions are made for the study of hyperon production from neutrino-nucleon reaction at present and future neutrino facilities.
The cross section for ultra-high energy neutrino-nucleon scattering is very sensitive to the parton distributions at very small values of Bjorken x ($x \leq 10^{-4})$. We numerically investigate the effects of modifying the behavior of the gluon distribution function at very small $x$ in the DGLAP evolution equation. We then use the Color Glass Condensate formalism to calculate the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra-high energies and compare the result with those based on modification of DGLAP evolution equation.
A search for extremely high energy cosmic neutrinos has been carried out with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The main signals in the search are neutrino-induced energetic charged leptons and their rate depends on the neutrino-nucleon cross section. The upper-limit on the neutrino flux has implications for possible new physics beyond the standard model such as the extra space-time dimension scenarios which lead to a cross section much higher than the standard particle physics prediction. In this study we constrain the neutrino-nucleon cross section at energies beyond $10^9$ GeV with the IceC…
Numerical results for the degree of polarization of τ^- produced in (CC) neutrino - nucleon Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) are presented. Calculations are done in the threshold region, where the τ^- scattered by the small angles and can be partially polarized. The cross sections and polarization are calculated by using the GRV98 parton distributions functions (PDF's) and the GRV98 with modifications of A. Bodek at.al.
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.
It is shown that several ratios of neutral to charged current cross sections are determined accurately, because the largest contribution is determined by isospin symmetry and the smaller terms are estimated from data or theoretical calculations. This way the theoretical uncertainty is very small. It is further discussed that the ratios can be measured at various distances from the origin of the neutrino beams, because an increase with distance will be indication for neutrino oscillations and will allow a precise determination of the oscillation parameters. Finally, coherent scattering is discu…
Attention is paid to recent results from the ZEUS Collaboration on the photo- and electro- production of leading neutrons in e^+ p collisions at HERA. Some implications for the structure of the pion and the nucleon are discussed.
Neutron stars generally cools off by the emission of gamma rays and neutrinos. But axions can also be produced inside a neutron star by the process of nucleon-nucleon axion bremsstrahlung. The escape of these axions adds to the cooling process of neutron star. We explore the nature of cooling of neutron stars including the axion emission and compare our result with the scenario when the neutron star is cooled by only the emission of gamma rays and neutrinos. In our calculations we consider both the degenerate and non-degenerate limits for such axion energy loss rate and the resulting variation…
We predict the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultrahigh energies relevant in connection with the search for high-energy cosmic neutrinos. Our investigation, employing the color-dipole picture, among other things allows us to quantitatively determine which fraction of the ultrahigh-energy neutrino-nucleon cross section stems from the saturation versus the color-transparency region. We disagree with various results in the literature that predict a strong suppression of the neutrino-nucleon cross section at neutrino energies above $E \cong 10^9 GeV$. Suppression in the sense of a diminished in…
The multi-particle production at high energy neutrino- nucleon collisions are investigated through the analysis of the data of the experiment CERN-WA-025 at neutrino energy less than 260GeV and the experiments FNAL-616 and FNAL-701 at energy range 120-250 GeV. The general features of these experiments are used as base to build a hypothetical model that views the reaction by a Feynman diagram of two vertices. The first of which concerns the weak interaction between the neutrino and the quark constituents of the nucleon. At the second vertex, a strong color field is assumed to play the role of p…
Non-standard neutrino-nucleon interaction is formulated and explored within the energy range of quasi-elastic scattering. In particular, the study focuses on the neutral-current elastic (anti)neutrino scattering off nucleons described by the exotic reactions $ν_α({\bar ν}_α) + n \rightarrow ν_β({\bar ν}_β) + n $ and $ ν_α({\bar ν}_α) + p \rightarrow ν_β({\bar ν}_β) + p$, which provide corrections to the dominant Standard Model processes. In this context, it is shown that the required exotic nucleon form factors may have a significant impact on the relevant cross sections. Besides cross section…
We evaluate the neutrino nucleon charged current cross section at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamic corrections in the variable flavor number scheme and the fixed flavor number scheme, taking into account quark masses. The number scheme dependence is largest at the highest energies considered here, $10^{12}$ GeV, where the cross sections differ by approximately 15 percent. We illustrate the numerical implications of the inconsistent application of the fixed flavor number scheme.
