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Mapping the dominant regions of the phase space associated with c c - production relevant for the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux

Goncalves, Victor P. LU ; Maciuła, Rafał ; Pasechnik, Roman LU and Szczurek, Antoni (2017) In Physical Review D 96(9).
Abstract

We present a detailed mapping of the dominant kinematical domains contributing to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high neutrino energies by studying their sensitivity to the cuts on several kinematical variables crucial for charm production in cosmic ray scattering in the atmosphere. This includes the maximal center-of-mass energy for proton-proton scattering, the longitudinal momentum fractions of partons in the projectile (cosmic ray) and target (nucleus of the atmosphere), the Feynman xF variable, and the transverse momentum of charm quark/antiquark. We find that the production of neutrinos with energies larger than Eν>107 GeV is particularly sensitive to the c.m. energies larger than the ones at the LHC and to the... (More)

We present a detailed mapping of the dominant kinematical domains contributing to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high neutrino energies by studying their sensitivity to the cuts on several kinematical variables crucial for charm production in cosmic ray scattering in the atmosphere. This includes the maximal center-of-mass energy for proton-proton scattering, the longitudinal momentum fractions of partons in the projectile (cosmic ray) and target (nucleus of the atmosphere), the Feynman xF variable, and the transverse momentum of charm quark/antiquark. We find that the production of neutrinos with energies larger than Eν>107 GeV is particularly sensitive to the c.m. energies larger than the ones at the LHC and to the longitudinal momentum fractions in the projectile 10-8<x<10-5. Clearly, these are regions where we do not control the parton, in particular, gluon, densities. We also analyze the characteristic theoretical uncertainties in the charm production cross section coming from its QCD modeling. The precision data on the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux can efficiently constrain the mechanism of heavy quark production and underlying QCD dynamics in kinematical ranges beyond the reach of the current collider measurements.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physical Review D
volume
96
issue
9
article number
094026
publisher
American Physical Society
external identifiers
  • wos:000416315000006
  • scopus:85037742955
ISSN
2470-0010
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevD.96.094026
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a9a4da86-0df3-45dd-90d6-cda68cebf08f
date added to LUP
2018-01-04 10:01:21
date last changed
2024-02-13 11:52:56
@article{a9a4da86-0df3-45dd-90d6-cda68cebf08f,
  abstract     = {{<p>We present a detailed mapping of the dominant kinematical domains contributing to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high neutrino energies by studying their sensitivity to the cuts on several kinematical variables crucial for charm production in cosmic ray scattering in the atmosphere. This includes the maximal center-of-mass energy for proton-proton scattering, the longitudinal momentum fractions of partons in the projectile (cosmic ray) and target (nucleus of the atmosphere), the Feynman xF variable, and the transverse momentum of charm quark/antiquark. We find that the production of neutrinos with energies larger than Eν&gt;107 GeV is particularly sensitive to the c.m. energies larger than the ones at the LHC and to the longitudinal momentum fractions in the projectile 10-8&lt;x&lt;10-5. Clearly, these are regions where we do not control the parton, in particular, gluon, densities. We also analyze the characteristic theoretical uncertainties in the charm production cross section coming from its QCD modeling. The precision data on the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux can efficiently constrain the mechanism of heavy quark production and underlying QCD dynamics in kinematical ranges beyond the reach of the current collider measurements.</p>}},
  author       = {{Goncalves, Victor P. and Maciuła, Rafał and Pasechnik, Roman and Szczurek, Antoni}},
  issn         = {{2470-0010}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  number       = {{9}},
  publisher    = {{American Physical Society}},
  series       = {{Physical Review D}},
  title        = {{Mapping the dominant regions of the phase space associated with c c - production relevant for the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.094026}},
  doi          = {{10.1103/PhysRevD.96.094026}},
  volume       = {{96}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}