Atmospheric Neutrinos

Understand

In view of the observation by IceCube of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, it is important to quantify the uncertainty in the background of atmospheric neutrinos.

• There are two sources of uncertainty, the imperfect knowledge of the spectrum and composition of the primary cosmic rays that produce the neutrinos and the limited understanding of hadron production, including charm, at high energy.
• This paper is an overview of both aspects.