Intrinsic charm in the nucleon and forward production of charm: a new constrain from IceCube Neutrino Observatory

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intrinsic charm in the proton affects high-energy atmospheric neutrino flux predictions, using IceCube data to constrain the charm contribution in nucleons.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to incorporate intrinsic charm into neutrino flux models and provides constraints based on IceCube observations.

Findings

Intrinsic charm significantly influences prompt neutrino flux predictions.

Constraints on the probability of intrinsic charm in the nucleon are derived from IceCube data.

The results impact future modeling of high-energy atmospheric neutrinos.

Abstract

The predictions for the atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies strongly depend on the contribution of prompt neutrinos, which are determined by the production of charmed meson in the atmosphere at very forward rapidities. Here we estimate the related cross sections taking into account the presence of an intrinsic charm (IC) component in the proton wave function. The impact on the predictions for the prompt neutrino flux is investigated assuming different values for the probability to find the IC in the nucleon.