Neutral current in the Weinberg-Salam gauge model and elastic scattering of neutrinos and antineutrinos on nucleons

Abstract

We study the elastic scattering of neutrinos and antineutrinos on nucleons in the Weinberg-Salam model of the neutral current. In particular, we incorporate into our calculation the experimental cuts relevant to the two recent BNL experiments and also fold in the BNL $\nu$ and $\overline{\nu }$ spectra. Sensitivity of the calculation to the changes in the axial-vector-meson mass and the Weinberg angle are explored. We conclude that the Weinberg-Salam-model prediction for $R_{\mathrm{el}}=\frac{〈\sigma ({\nu }_{\mu }+p\to {\nu }_{\mu }+p)〉}{〈\sigma ({\nu }_{\mu }+n\to {\mu }^{-}+p)〉}$ and the differential-cross-section measurements are not inconsistent with the data provided the uncertainty in the mass of the axial-vector meson $M_A$ is taken into account. Similar predictions are given for $\overline{\nu }N$ scattering.