A comparative study of the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra high energies

TL;DR

This paper compares different theoretical models predicting the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra-high energies, highlighting significant uncertainties that impact neutrino telescope event rate calculations.

Contribution

It introduces updated predictions based on the Color Glass Condensate and the running coupling Balitsky-Kovchegov equation, providing new insights into high-energy neutrino interactions.

Findings

Uncertainty in cross section predictions reaches a factor of three at 10^{11} GeV.

Uncertainty increases to a factor of five at 10^{13} GeV.

Different models show varying behaviors for the neutrino-nucleon cross section at ultra-high energies.

Abstract

The high energy neutrino cross section is a crucial ingredient in the calculation of the event rate in high energy neutrino telescopes. Currently there are several approaches which predict different behaviours for its magnitude for ultrahigh energies. In this paper we present a comparison between the predictions based on linear DGLAP dynamics, non-linear QCD and in the imposition of a Froissart-like behaviour at high energies. In particular, we update the predictions based on the Color Glass Condensate, presenting for the first time the results for $\sigma_{\nu N}$ using the solution of the running coupling Balitsky-Kovchegov equation. Our results demonstrate that the current theoretical uncertainty for the neutrino-nucleon cross section reaches a factor three for neutrinos energies around $10^{11}$ GeV and increases to a factor five for $10^{13}$ GeV.