Recent simulations have shown that a high-energy proton bunch can excite strong plasma wakefields and accelerate a bunch of electrons to the energy frontier in a single stage of acceleration. This scheme could lead to a future $ep$ collider using the
LHC for the proton beam and a compact electron accelerator of length 170 m, producing electrons of energy up to 100 GeV. The parameters of such a collider are discussed as well as conceptual layouts within the CERN accelerator complex. The physics of plasma wakefield acceleration will also be introduced, with the AWAKE experiment, a proof of principle demonstration of proton-driven plasma wakefield acceleration, briefly reviewed, as well as the physics possibilities of such an $ep$ collider.
In this article, recent measurements of diffraction in deep inelastic scattering are presented along with QCD fits to extract the partonic structure of the exchange. These so-called diffractive parton density functions can then be used in predictions
for other processes to test factorisation in diffraction. This is an important verification of QCD and has significance for predicting exotic signals such as diffractive Higgs production at the LHC.
