Calculation of high energy neutrino-nucleon cross sections and uncertainties using the Martin-Stirling-Thorne-Watt parton distribution functions and implications for future experiments

We present a new calculation of the cross sections for charged current and neutral current νN and νN interactions in the neutrino energy range 10⁴<E_ν<10¹² GeV using the most recent Martin-Stirling-Thorne-Watt (MSTW) parton distribution functions (PDFs), MSTW 2008. We also present the associated uncertainties propagated from the PDFs, as well as parametrizations of the cross section central values, their uncertainty bounds, and the inelasticity distributions for ease of use in Monte Carlo simulations. For the latter we only provide parametrizations for energies above 10⁷ GeV. Finally, we assess the feasibility of future neutrino experiments to constrain the νN cross section in the ultrahigh energy regime using a technique that is independent of the flux spectrum of incident neutrinos. A significant deviation from the predicted standard model cross sections could be an indication of new physics, such as extra space-time dimensions, and we present expected constraints on such models as a function of the number of events observed in a future subterranean neutrino detector.