Quark mass effects in high energy neutrino nucleon scattering

TL;DR

This paper calculates high-energy neutrino nucleon scattering cross sections considering quark masses, highlighting the impact of scheme choices and energy dependence on the results.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of variable and fixed flavor number schemes at next-to-leading order, emphasizing quark mass effects in high-energy regimes.

Findings

Cross section differences reach about 15% at 10^12 GeV.

Scheme dependence is most significant at ultra-high energies.

Inconsistent scheme application can lead to numerical inaccuracies.

Abstract

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.