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This document presents BNLs plan for an electron-ion collider, eRHIC, a major new research tool that builds on the existing RHIC facility to advance the long-term vision for Nuclear Physics to discover and understand the emergent phenomena of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong interaction that binds the atomic nucleus. We describe the scientific requirements for such a facility, following up on the community-wide 2012 white paper, Electron-Ion Collider: the Next QCD Frontier, and present a design concept that incorporates new, innovative accelerator techniques to provide a cost-effective upgrade of RHIC with polarized electron beams colliding with the full array of RHIC hadron beams. The new facility will deliver electron-nucleon luminosity of 10^33-10^34 cm-1sec-1 for collisions of 15.9 GeV polarized electrons on either 250 GeV polarized protons or 100 GeV/u heavy ion beams. The facility will also be capable of providing an electron beam energy of 21.2 GeV, at reduced luminosity. We discuss the on-going R&D effort to realize the project, and present key detector requirements and design ideas for an experimental program capable of making the golden measurements called for in the EIC White Paper.
In this paper, we describe a future electron-ion collider (EIC), based on the existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) hadron facility, with two intersecting superconducting rings, each 3.8 km in circumference. A new ERL accelerator, which provide 5-30 GeV electron beam, will ensure 10^33 to 10^34 cm^-2 s^-1 level luminosity.
We have studied the time evolution of the heavy ion luminosity and bunch intensities in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), at BNL, and in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at CERN. First, we present measurements from a large number of RHIC stores (from Run 7), colliding 100 GeV/nucleon Au beams without stochastic cooling. These are compared with two different calculation methods. The first is a simulation based on multi-particle tracking taking into account collisions, intrabeam scattering, radiation damping, and synchrotron and betatron motion. In the second, faster, method, a system of ordinary differential equations with terms describing the corresponding effects on emittances and bunch populations is solved numerically. Results of the tracking method agree very well with the RHIC data. With the faster method, significant discrepancies are found since the losses of particles diffusing out of the RF bucket due to intrabeam scattering are not modeled accurately enough. Finally, we use both methods to make predictions of the time evolution of the future Pb beams in the LHC at injection and collision energy. For this machine, the two methods agree well.
The physics programme and the design are described of a new collider for particle and nuclear physics, the Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC), in which a newly built electron beam of 60 GeV, up to possibly 140 GeV, energy collides with the intense hadron beams of the LHC. Compared to HERA, the kinematic range covered is extended by a factor of twenty in the negative four-momentum squared, $Q^2$, and in the inverse Bjorken $x$, while with the design luminosity of $10^{33}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ the LHeC is projected to exceed the integrated HERA luminosity by two orders of magnitude. The physics programme is devoted to an exploration of the energy frontier, complementing the LHC and its discovery potential for physics beyond the Standard Model with high precision deep inelastic scattering measurements. These are designed to investigate a variety of fundamental questions in strong and electroweak interactions. The physics programme also includes electron-deuteron and electron-ion scattering in a $(Q^2, 1/x)$ range extended by four orders of magnitude as compared to previous lepton-nucleus DIS experiments for novel investigations of neutrons and nuclear structure, the initial conditions of Quark-Gluon Plasma formation and further quantum chromodynamic phenomena. The LHeC may be realised either as a ring-ring or as a linac-ring collider. Optics and beam dynamics studies are presented for bo
In high energy electron-ion colliders, a new way to probe nucleon structure becomes available through diffractive reactions, where the incident particle produces a very energetic almost forward particle. QCD describes these reactions as due to the exchange of a Pomeron which may be perturbatively described as a dressed two-gluon state, provided a hard scale allows the factorization of the amplitude in terms of two impact factors convoluted with a Pomeron propagator. We consider here a process where such a description allows to access hadronic structure in terms of the generalized parton distributions, namely the electroproduction of a forward $rho$ meson and a timelike deeply virtual photon, separated by a large rapidity gap. We explore the dependence of the cross section on the kinematic variables and study the dependence on the non-perturbative inputs (generalized parton distributions, distribution amplitude). Our leading order studies show the cross section is mainly sensitive to the GPD model input, but the small size of the cross sections could prohibit straightforward analysis of this process at planned facilities.
A precise determination of absolute luminosity, using the bremsstrahlung process, at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will be very demanding, and its three major challenges are discussed herein. First, the bremsstrahlung rate suppression due to the so-called beam size effect has to be well controlled. Secondly, the impact of huge synchrotron radiation fluxes should be mitigated. Thirdly, enormous bremsstrahlung event rates, in excess of 10 GHz, have to be coped with. A basic layout of the luminosity measurement setup at the EIC, addressing these issues, is proposed, including preliminary detector technology choices. Finally, the uncertainties of three proposed methods are also discussed.