Depletion of atmospheric neutrino fluxes from parton energy loss

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fully coherent energy loss (FCEL) in proton-light ion collisions reduces atmospheric neutrino fluxes and hadron production, impacting cosmic ray air shower physics and requiring adjustments to previous flux estimates.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of FCEL on atmospheric neutrino fluxes and hadron production, providing new predictions for nuclear suppression effects in proton-oxygen and proton-air collisions.

Findings

Significant nuclear suppression (~10-25%) in atmospheric neutrino fluxes due to FCEL.

Predicted suppression affects both conventional and prompt neutrino fluxes.

Previous atmospheric neutrino flux estimates should be scaled down to include FCEL effects.

Abstract

The phenomenon of fully coherent energy loss (FCEL) in the collisions of protons on light ions affects the physics of cosmic ray air showers. As an illustration, we address two closely related observables: hadron production in forthcoming proton-oxygen collisions at the LHC, and the atmospheric neutrino fluxes induced by the semileptonic decays of hadrons produced in proton-air collisions. In both cases, a significant nuclear suppression due to FCEL is predicted. The conventional and prompt neutrino fluxes are suppressed by $\sim 10...25\%$ in their relevant neutrino energy ranges. Previous estimates of atmospheric neutrino fluxes should be scaled down accordingly to account for FCEL.