Tau polarization in neutrino-nucleus interactions at the LHC energy range

TL;DR

This paper investigates tau lepton polarization in neutrino-tungsten interactions at LHC energies, estimating cross-sections and polarization components, and finds polarization less than one, largely unaffected by nuclear effects.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of tau polarization in high-energy neutrino-nucleus interactions at LHC energies, considering various nuclear models.

Findings

Tau polarization is less than 1 at LHC energies.

Polarization results are insensitive to nuclear effects.

Differential cross-sections and polarization components are estimated.

Abstract

Considering that the study of neutrino-nucleus interactions with incident neutrino energy ranges in the GeV-TeV range is feasible at the Large Hadron Collider, we investigate in this paper the degree of polarization ${\cal{P}}$ of the (anti) tau lepton produced in (anti) tau neutrino - tungsten interactions. We estimate the differential cross-sections and the longitudinal and transverse components of the tau lepton polarization as a function of the tau lepton energy and distinct values of the scattering angle, assuming different values for the energy of the incoming (anti) tau neutrino. Different models for the treatment of the nuclear effects in the parton distribution functions are assumed as input in the calculations. Our results indicate that $ {\cal{P}} < 1$ for the neutrino energies reached at the LHC and are almost insensitive to the nuclear effects.