Cosmic Neutrinos and New Physics beyond the Electroweak Scale

Abstract

New physics beyond the electroweak scale may increase weak interaction cross sections beyond the Standard Model predictions. Such cross sections can be expected within theories that solve the hierarchy problem of known interactions with a unification scale in the TeV range. We derive constraints on these cross sections from the flux of neutrinos expected from cosmic ray interactions with the microwave background and the non-observation of horizontal air showers. We also discuss how this limit can be improved by upcoming cosmic ray and neutrino experiments, and how the energy dependence of the new interactions can be probed by these experiments.