Invariant amplitudes, unpolarized cross sections, and polarization asymmetries in neutrino-nucleon and antineutrino-nucleon elastic scattering

Abstract

At leading order in weak and electromagnetic couplings, cross sections for (anti)neutrino-nucleon elastic scattering are determined by four nucleon form factors that depend on the momentum transfer Q2. Including radiative corrections in the Standard Model and potential new physics contributions beyond the Standard Model, eight invariant amplitudes are possible, depending on both Q2 and the (anti)neutrino energy Eν. We review the definition of these amplitudes and use them to compute both unpolarized and polarized observables including radiative corrections. We show that unpolarized accelerator neutrino cross-section measurements can probe new physics parameter space within the constraints inferred from precision beta decay measurements. Published by the American Physical Society 2024