Neutrino-nucleon cross sections at energies of Megaton-scale detectors

TL;DR

This paper provides updated neutrino-nucleon cross sections for energies relevant to Megaton-scale detectors, incorporating recent QCD PDFs and corrections, aiding future neutrino experiments' design and data analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a new set of cross sections using ABMP15 PDFs, accounting for lepton masses and target corrections, with comprehensive uncertainty analysis.

Findings

Cross sections agree with experimental data within uncertainties.

Sensitivity to small-x and Q^2 extrapolations analyzed.

Updated cross sections improve detector modeling for future experiments.

Abstract

An updated set of (anti)neutrino-nucleon charged and neutral current cross sections at $3~{\rm GeV} \lesssim E_\nu \lesssim 100~{\rm GeV}$ is presented. These cross sections are of particular interest for the detector optimization and data processing and interpretation in the future Megaton-scale experiments like PINGU, ORCA, and Hyper-Kamiokande. Finite masses of charged leptons and target mass corrections in exclusive and deep inelastic $(\bar\nu)\nu N$ interactions are taken into account. A new set of QCD NNLO parton density functions, the ABMP15, is used for calculation of the DIS cross sections. The sensitivity of the cross sections to phenomenological parameters and to extrapolations of the nucleon structure functions to small $x$ and $Q^2$ is studied. An agreement within the uncertainties of our calculations with experimental data is demonstrated.