Physics with Cosmic Neutrinos, PeV to ZeV

Abstract

We begin with a brief overview of highest-energy cosmic ray data, and the experiments which will perform neutrino astronomy. We then discuss two particle physics aspects of neutrinos. They are possible long-lifetime decay of the neutrino, and a measurement of the neutrino-nucleon cross-section at a CMS energy orders of magnitude beyond what can be achieved with terrestrial accelerators. Measurement of an anomalously large neutrino cross-section would indicate new physics (e.g. low string-scale, extra dimensions, precocious unification), while a smaller than expected cross-section would reveal an aspect of QCD evolution. We then discuss aspects of neutrino-primary models for the extreme-energy (EE) cosmic ray data. Primary neutrinos in extant data are motivated by the directional clustering at EE reported by the AGASA experiment. We discuss the impact of the strongly-interacting neutrino hypothesis on lower-energy physics via dispersion relations, the statistical significance of AGASA directional clustering, and the possible relevance of the Z-burst mechanism for existing EE cosmic ray data.