Nuclear effects in extracting $\sin^2\theta_W$ and a probe for short-range correlations

Abstract

We investigate the neutral-current neutrino-nucleon deep inelastic scattering with particular emphasis on short-range correlation and EMC effect, as well as their impact on the weak-mixing angle $\sin^2\theta_W$ determination. The ratios of structure function $F_{2(NC)}^{A}$ and $x F_{3(NC)}^{A}$ are presented where the nuclei $A$ are chosen as carbon, iron and lead. One kind of universal modification function is proposed which would provide a nontrivial test of SRC universality on the platform of neutrino-nucleon DIS. In addition, we study the impact of ``SRC-driven'' nuclear effects on the extraction of $\sin^2\theta_W$ which is naturally associated with the renowned NuTeV anomaly. The results indicate that these effects may account for a substantial fraction of the NuTeV anomaly and considerably affect the value of extracted $\sin^2\theta_W$.