Ultra-High Energy Neutrinos: A Review of Theoretical and Phenomenological Issues

Abstract

We review the phenomenology of ultra-high energy (UHE) neutrino detection. The motivations for looking for such neutrinos stemming from observational evidence and the potential for new physics discoveries are enumerated, and their expected sources and fluxes are given. Cross-sections with nucleons all the way upto neutrino energies of 10^20 eV, and the attenuation of the fluxes in the earth are discussed. Finally, sample event-rates for existing and future Water/Ice Cerenkov detectors are provided.

Comments: Invited Talk at Neutrino 2000, XIX International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, Sudbury, Canada, June 16-21, 2000. 12 pages. References updated; minor changes to text