  We analyze neutrino-induced leptoquark production on atomic nuclei. A
leptoquark term in the Lagrangian admits the possibility that neutrinos
interact with gluons. The current lower limits on the leptoquark masses are of
the order of 1 TeV depending on the leptoquark quantum numbers and couplings.
Such heavy states can be produced in ultra-high energy cosmic neutrino
scattering processes. The four-momentum transfer squared and the Bjorken
variable simultaneously probed in these processes may reach values
kinematically inaccessible at present collider experiments. We study the impact
of the gluon density in a nucleus on the cross section for the leptoquark
production. We show that taking into account the nuclear parton distributions
shifts the production threshold to significantly lower neutrino energies. As a
particular case we consider the interaction with oxygen, which is abundant in
water/ice neutrino telescopes.
