Probing strong dynamics with cosmic neutrinos

• Main Authors: Anchordoqui, Luis A., Canal, Carlos Garcia, Soriano, Jorge F.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2019
• Subjects: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology hep-ph; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena astro-ph.HE; FOS Physical sciences; Antarctic; South Pole; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1902.10134; https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10134

IceCube has observed 80 astrophysical neutrino candidates in the energy range 0.02 < E_ν/PeV < 2. Deep inelastic scattering of these neutrinos with nucleons on Antarctic ice sheet probe center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} \sim$ 1 TeV. By comparing the rates for two classes of observable events, any departure from the benchmark (perturbative QCD) neutrino-nucleon cross section can be constrained. Using the projected sensitivity of South Pole next generation neutrino telescope we show that this facility will provide a unique probe of strong interaction dynamics. In particular, we demonstrate that the high-energy high-statistics data sample to be recorded by IceCube-Gen2 in the very near future will deliver a direct measurement of the neutrino-nucleon cross section at $\sqrt{s} \sim 1$ TeV, with a precision comparable to perturbative QCD informed by HERA data. We also use IceCube data to extract the neutrino-nucleon cross section at $\sqrt{s} \sim 1$ TeV through a likelihood analysis, considering (for the first time) both the charged-current and neutral-current contributions as free parameters of the likelihood function. : v2 includes determination of the neutrino-nucleon neutral-current cross section using IceCube data