Inclusive and diffractive neutrino-nucleus scattering at high energy

We calculate the energy dependence of inclusive and diffractive neutrino-nucleus deep-inelastic scattering cross sections within the dipole picture, focusing on the ultrahigh-energy regime. We predict an up to <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mo>∼</a:mo><a:mn>10</a:mn><a:mo>%</a:mo></a:math> nuclear suppression in the inclusive neutrino-oxygen scattering originating from the nonlinear QCD dynamics in the small-<c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>x</c:mi></c:math> Balitsky-Kovchegov evolution. Diffraction is found to be a small <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mrow><e:mn>1</e:mn><e:mo>%</e:mo><e:mo>−</e:mo><e:mn>4</e:mn><e:mo>%</e:mo></e:mrow></e:math> contribution to the total cross section across a wide range of neutrino energies relevant for current and near-future experiments. The diffractive cross section is calculated separately for the coherent and incoherent channels that are found to be of equal importance. Additionally, we include the dominant contribution from the <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mo stretchy="false">|</g:mo><g:mi>q</g:mi><g:mover accent="true"><g:mi>q</g:mi><g:mo stretchy="false">¯</g:mo></g:mover><g:mi>g</g:mi><g:mo stretchy="false">⟩</g:mo></g:math> Fock state of the <m:math xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><m:msup><m:mi>W</m:mi><m:mo>±</m:mo></m:msup></m:math> and <o:math xmlns:o="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><o:mi>Z</o:mi></o:math> bosons in the high-<q:math xmlns:q="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><q:msup><q:mi>Q</q:mi><q:mn>2</q:mn></q:msup></q:math> limit, along with the lowest-order <s:math xmlns:s="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><s:mo stretchy="false">|</s:mo><s:mi>q</s:mi><s:mover accent="true"><s:mi>q</s:mi><s:mo stretchy="false">¯</s:mo></s:mover><s:mo stretchy="false">⟩</s:mo></s:math> contribution. The <y:math xmlns:y="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><y:mo stretchy="false">|</y:mo><y:mi>q</y:mi><y:mover accent="true"><y:mi>q</y:mi><y:mo stretchy="false">¯</y:mo></y:mover><y:mi>g</y:mi><y:mo stretchy="false">⟩</y:mo></y:math> contribution is found to be numerically significant, reaching up to 40% of the diffractive cross section. Published by the American Physical Society 2024