Investigating the dominant regions of the phase space associated with cc production relevant for the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux

Summary, in English

A detailed mapping of the dominant kinematical domains contributing to the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux at high neutrino energies is presented 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), and the Feynman x_F variable. We find that the production of neutrinos with energies larger than E_ν > 10⁷ GeV is particularly sensitive to the cm. energies larger than the ones at the LHC and to the longitudinal momentum fractions in the projectile 10⁸ < × < 10⁵. Our results indicate that 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.