skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Electron-ion collider in China
Abstract Lepton scattering is an established ideal tool for studying inner structure of small particles such as nucleons as well as nuclei. As a future high energy nuclear physics project, an Electron-ion collider in China (EicC) has been proposed. It will be constructed based on an upgraded heavy-ion accelerator, High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) which is currently under construction, together with a new electron ring. The proposed collider will provide highly polarized electrons (with a polarization of ∼80%) and protons (with a polarization of ∼70%) with variable center of mass energies from 15 to 20 GeV and the luminosity of (2–3) × 10 33 cm −2 · s −1 . Polarized deuterons and Helium-3, as well as unpolarized ion beams from Carbon to Uranium, will be also available at the EicC. The main foci of the EicC will be precision measurements of the structure of the nucleon in the sea quark region, including 3D tomography of nucleon; the partonic structure of nuclei and the parton interaction with the nuclear environment; the exotic states, especially those with heavy flavor quark contents. In addition, issues fundamental to understanding the origin of mass could be addressed by measurements of heavy quarkonia near-threshold production at the EicC. In order to achieve the above-mentioned physics goals, a hermetical detector system will be constructed with cutting-edge technologies. This document is the result of collective contributions and valuable inputs from experts across the globe. The EicC physics program complements the ongoing scientific programs at the Jefferson Laboratory and the future EIC project in the United States. The success of this project will also advance both nuclear and particle physics as well as accelerator and detector technology in China.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2013791
PAR ID:
10269431
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers of Physics
Volume:
16
Issue:
6
ISSN:
2095-0462
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. A bstract Understanding how sea quarks behave inside a nucleon is one of the most important physics goals of the proposed Electron-Ion Collider in China (EicC), which is designed to have a 3.5 GeV polarized electron beam (80% polarization) colliding with a 20 GeV polarized proton beam (70% polarization) at instantaneous luminosity of 2 × 10 33 cm − 2 s − 1 . A specific topic at EicC is to understand the polarization of individual quarks inside a longitudinally polarized nucleon. The potential of various future EicC data, including the inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data from both doubly polarized electron-proton and electron- 3 He collisions, to reduce the uncertainties of parton helicity distributions is explored at the next-to-leading order in QCD, using the Error PDF Updating Method Package ( e P ump ) which is based on the Hessian profiling method. We show that the semi-inclusive data are well able to provide good separation between flavour distributions, and to constrain their uncertainties in the x > 0 . 005 region, especially when electron- 3 He collisions, acting as effective electron-neutron collisions, are taken into account. To enable this study, we have generated a Hessian representation of the DSSV14 set of PDF replicas, named DSSV14H PDFs. 
    more » « less
  2. The EIC Comprehensive Chromodynamics Experiment (ECCE) detector has been designed to address the full scope of the proposed Electron Ion Collider (EIC) physics program as presented by the National Academy of Science and provide a deeper understanding of the quark–gluon structure of matter. To accomplish this, the ECCE detector offers nearly acceptance and energy coverage along with excellent tracking and particle identification. The ECCE detector was designed to be built within the budget envelope set out by the EIC project while simultaneously managing cost and schedule risks. This detector concept has been selected to be the basis for the EIC project detector. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract High-energy nuclear collisions encompass three key stages: the structure of the colliding nuclei, informed by low-energy nuclear physics, theinitial condition, leading to the formation of quark–gluon plasma (QGP), and the hydrodynamic expansion and hadronization of the QGP, leading to final-state hadron distributions that are observed experimentally. Recent advances in both experimental and theoretical methods have ushered in a precision era of heavy-ion collisions, enabling an increasingly accurate understanding of these stages. However, most approaches involve simultaneously determining both QGP properties and initial conditions from a single collision system, creating complexity due to the coupled contributions of these stages to the final-state observables. To avoid this, we propose leveraging established knowledge of low-energy nuclear structures and hydrodynamic observables to independently constrain the QGP’s initial condition. By conducting comparative studies of collisions involving isobar-like nuclei—species with similar mass numbers but different ground-state geometries—we can disentangle the initial condition’s impacts from the QGP properties. This approach not only refines our understanding of the initial stages of the collisions but also turns high-energy nuclear experiments into a precision tool for imaging nuclear structures, offering insights that complement traditional low-energy approaches. Opportunities for carrying out such comparative experiments at the Large Hadron Collider and other facilities could significantly advance both high-energy and low-energy nuclear physics. Additionally, this approach has implications for the future electron-ion collider. While the possibilities are extensive, we focus on selected proposals that could benefit both the high-energy and low-energy nuclear physics communities. Originally prepared as input for the long-range plan of U.S. nuclear physics, this white paper reflects the status as of September 2022, with a brief update on developments since then. 
    more » « less
  4. Deep-inelastic scattering of electrons on a nucleon is a primary source of information about parton distribution functions (PDF) and transverse momentum distributions (TMD). The calculation of the QED corrections to SIDIS with any predetermined accuracy is crucial for studies of the 3D structure of the nucleon at JLab and future Electron Ion Collider (EIC). A majority of approved physics experiments that will be running with 12-GeV electron beams at JLab to study the nucleon structure require per-cent level accuracies in the measurements of differential cross sections and polarization asymmetries. Neglecting electromagnetic corrections may lead to significant mis-interpretation of data. Analysis of T-odd singe spin asymmetries (SSA) in SIDIS, p (e, e'h) X, is based on an assumption that purely electromagnetic T-odd effects are negligible. 
    more » « less
  5. sPHENIX is a next-generation detector experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, designed for a broad set of jet and heavy-flavor probes of the Quark-Gluon Plasma created in heavy ion collisions. In anticipation of the commissioning and first data-taking of the detector in 2023, a RIKEN-BNL Research Center (RBRC) workshop was organized to collect theoretical input and identify compelling aspects of the physics program. This paper compiles theoretical predictions from the workshop participants for jet quenching, heavy flavor and quarkonia, cold QCD, and bulk physics measurements at sPHENIX. 
    more » « less