From eV to EeV: Neutrino Cross Sections Across Energy Scales

TL;DR

This paper surveys the current understanding of neutrino interaction cross sections across all energy scales, emphasizing experimental data and covering various interaction types from low to ultra-high energies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of neutrino cross sections across all energy ranges, integrating experimental data and recent developments in the field.

Findings

Neutrino cross sections vary significantly across energy scales.

Experimental data is crucial for understanding neutrino interactions.

The survey highlights gaps and future directions in neutrino physics.

Abstract

Since its original postulation by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930, the neutrino has played a prominent role in our understanding of nuclear and particle physics. In the intervening 80 years, scientists have detected and measured neutrinos from a variety of sources, both man-made and natural. Underlying all of these observations, and any inferences we may have made from them, is an understanding of how neutrinos interact with matter. Knowledge of neutrino interaction cross sections is an important and necessary ingredient in any neutrino measurement. With the advent of new precision experiments, the demands on our understanding of neutrino interactions is becoming even greater. The purpose of this article is to survey our current knowledge of neutrino cross sections across all known energy scales: from the very lowest energies to the highest that we hope to observe. The article covers a wide range of neutrino interactions including coherent scattering, neutrino capture, inverse beta decay, low energy nuclear interactions, quasi-elastic scattering, resonant pion production, kaon production, deep inelastic scattering and ultra-high energy interactions. Strong emphasis is placed on experimental data whenever such measurements are available.