Polarized Ion Sources and Beams at EIC, Community wide meeting
Physics Building, Room C120
A zoom link is provided below to virtually participate, click on zoom link.
PASSCODE: 704713
Scientific Motivation
In the 2030s, it is anticipated that the U.S.-based Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will be the premier facility worldwide for hadronic and nuclear physics. In particular, EIC is motivated by the desire to comprehensively understand the spin structure of the proton and neutron in terms of fundamental quarks and gluons. Further, over the years, polarized beams have provided a unique handle to probe dynamical phenomena that might be inaccessible with unpolarized beams. Indeed, polarized beams have enabled an enhanced sensitivity to physics observables critical to probe novel phenomena and spin dependent phenomena. The latter encompasses a broad spectrum of scientific inquiries, from enabling tests of the standard model of particle physics to the 3-dimensional spatial and momentum partonic structure of nucleons. Using highly polarized beams at the electron-ion collider (EIC), has always been an integral part of its overall design including polarized electrons colliding with polarized light ions, namely polarized protons (spin 1/2), deuterons (spin 1) and helions (spin 1/2). A desirable addition of lithium-6 (spin 1) and lithium-7 (spin 3/2) ions would also enhance the scientific program.
One of the important questions in nuclear physics is whether one can infer the intrinsic properties of a nucleus from its fundamental quantum chromo-dynamics (QCD) degrees of freedom, namely quarks and gluons. Traditionally nuclear physics has focused on providing ab initio calculations of the properties of light nuclei using nucleon-meson degrees of freedom. More recently the focus has shifted to using effective field theory to include two-body and three-body forces consistently. These calculations represent an important reference once the investigation of the direct role quarks and gluons play in nuclei is underway. Physics examples that are enabled with light nuclei are the investigation of the polarized EMC effect and its A dependence, hidden color configurations, six quarks contributions to the deuteron (free or embedded in Li) through measurements of the b1 structure function and the gluon transversity distribution not yet accessed anywhere else. The ultimate goal is to unravel the role of quarks and gluons in nuclei beyond the nucleon-meson picture as well as search for exotic phenomena using the nucleus and it's spin as a QCD laboratory.