Screening effects in the ultrahigh energy neutrino interactions

Abstract

We study possible saturation effects in the total cross-section describing interaction of ultrahigh energy neutrinos with nucleons. This analysis is performed within the two approaches, i.e. within the Golec-Biernat Wüsthoff saturation model and within the scheme unifying the DGLAP and BFKL dynamics incorporating non-linear screening effects which follow from the Balitzki-Kovchegov equation. The structure functions in both approaches are constrained by HERA data. It is found that screening effects affect extrapolation of the neutrino-nucleon total cross-sections to ultrahigh neutrino energies $E_ν$ and reduce their magnitude by a factor equal to about 2 at $E_ν \sim 10^{12}GeV$. This reduction becomes amplified by nuclear shadowing in the case of the neutrino-nucleus cross-sections and approximate estimate of this effect is performed.

23 pages, 9 figures,final version