High-energy spectra of the atmospheric neutrinos: predictions and measurements

Abstract

Statistical analysis is performed of the atmospheric neutrino flux models as compared with the data of Frejus, AMANDA-II, IceCube, ANTARES, and Super-Kamiokande experiments. The main objective is to characterize models of hadron-nucleus interactions from the point of view of the statistical significance of the atmospheric neutrino flux predictions compared to the measurements. The flux calculations were performed in the framework of the single computational scheme involving a set of hadronic models combined with parameterizations of the primary cosmic rays spectrum by Hillas & Gaisser and Zatsepin & Sokolskaya. The analysis showed satisfactory agreement of the conventional νµ flux calculations with the measurements. The prompt neutrinos conrtibution obtained with a set of charm production models (QGSM, SIBYLL 2.3c, PROSA, GRRST, BEJKRSS, and GM-VFNS) is statistically negligible in the energy range covered by the neutrino telescopes.