High-energy neutrinos, arising from decays of mesons produced through the collisions of cosmic ray particles with air nuclei, form the background in the astrophysical neutrino detection problem. An ambiguity in high-energy behavior of pion and especi
ally kaon production cross sections for nucleon-nucleus collisions may affect essentially the calculated neutrino flux. We present results of the calculation of the energy spectrum and zenith-angle distribution of the muon and electron atmospheric neutrinos in the energy range 10 GeV to 10 PeV. The calculation was performed with usage of known hadronic models (QGSJET-II-03, SIBYLL 2.1, Kimel & Mokhov) for two of the primary spectrum parametrizations, by Gaisser & Honda and by Zatsepin & Sokolskaya. The comparison of the calculated muon neutrino spectrum with the IceCube40 experiment data make it clear that even at energies above 100 TeV the prompt neutrino contribution is not so apparent because of tangled uncertainties of the strange (kaons) and charm (D-mesons) particle production cross sections. An analytic description of calculated neutrino fluxes is presented.
High-energy neutrinos, arising from decays of mesons that were produced through the cosmic rays collisions with air nuclei, form unavoidable background noise in the astrophysical neutrino detection problem. The atmospheric neutrino flux above 1 PeV s
hould be supposedly dominated by the contribution of charmed particle decays. These (prompt) neutrinos originated from decays of massive and shortlived particles, $D^pm$, $D^0$, $bar{D}{}^0$, $D_s^pm$, $Lambda^+_c$, form the most uncertain fraction of the high-energy atmospheric neutrino flux because of poor explored processes of the charm production. Besides, an ambiguity in high-energy behavior of pion and especially kaon production cross sections for nucleon-nucleus collisions may affect essentially the calculated neutrino flux. There is the energy region where above flux uncertainties superimpose. A new calculation presented here reveals sizable differences, up to the factor of 1.8 above 1 TeV, in muon neutrino flux predictions obtained with usage of known hadronic models, SIBYLL 2.1 and QGSJET-II. The atmospheric neutrino flux in the energy range $10-10^7$ GeV was computed within the 1D approach to solve nuclear cascade equations in the atmosphere, which takes into account non-scaling behavior of the inclusive cross-sections for the particle production, the rise of total inelastic hadron-nucleus cross-sections and nonpower-law character of the primary cosmic ray spectrum. This approach was recently tested in the atmospheric muon flux calculations [1]. The results of the neutrino flux calculations are compared with the Frejus, AMANDA-II and IceCube measurement data.
