Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe: NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010

The goal of this European Science Foundation Forward Look into the future of Nuclear Physics is to bring together the entire Nuclear Physics community in Europe to formulate a coherent plan of the best way to develop the field in the coming decade and beyond.<p></p> The primary aim of Nuclear Physics is to understand the origin, evolution, structure and phases of strongly interacting matter, which constitutes nearly 100% of the visible matter in the universe. This is an immensely important and challenging task that requires the concerted effort of scientists working in both theory and experiment, funding agencies, politicians and the public.<p></p> Nuclear Physics projects are often “big science”, which implies large investments and long lead times. They need careful forward planning and strong support from policy makers. This Forward Look provides an excellent tool to achieve this. It represents the outcome of detailed scrutiny by Europe’s leading experts and will help focus the views of the scientific community on the most promising directions in the field and create the basis for funding agencies to provide adequate support.<p></p> The current NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010 “Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe” resulted from consultation with close to 6 000 scientists and engineers over a period of approximately one year. Its detailed recommendations are presented on the following pages. For the interested public, a short summary brochure has been produced to accompany the Forward Look.<p></p&gt

Propagation of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos through the Earth

The dispersion relation in matter of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos above the pole of the $W$ resonance (E_{\nu} \gsim {\rm 10}^{7} {\rm GeV} ), is studied. We perform our calculation using the real-time formulation of Thermal Field Theory in which the massless limit for the $W$ boson is taken. The range of active-to-sterile neutrino oscillation parameters for which there is significant mixing enhancement during propagation through the interior of the Earth, and therefore significant attenuation of neutrino beams in the Earth at high energies, is estimated. Finally, this range is considered in view of the cosmological and astrophysical constraints.Comment: 8 pages, some comments and references added, to appear in Phys. Lett.