Organizers:
Daniel Boer
VU University Amsterdam
d.boer@few.vu.nl

Markus Diehl
DESY
markus.diehl@desy.de

Raju Venugopalan
Brookhaven National Laboratory
raju@quark.phy.bnl.gov

Werner Vogelsang
Brookhaven National Laboratory
vogelsan@quark.phy.bnl.gov

Program Coordinator:
Inge Dolan
inge@phys.washington.edu
(206) 685-4286

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Physics at a High Energy Electron Ion Collider (09-43W)

October 19 - 23, 2009

Exploring and understanding fully the role of gluons and sea quarks in the structure of the nucleon and atomic nuclei is a major frontier of nuclear and particle physics. Although there has been much progress thanks to data from HERA, a new dedicated facility will be essential for answering some of the most central questions. This facility is the Electron Ion Collider (EIC).

Recent advances in accelerator studies strongly suggest that a staged approach in increased energy/luminosity for the EIC is feasible and likely favorable. The present workshop primarily addresses the science at such a "stage-I" EIC, where one could have polarized 2-4 GeV electrons scattering off up to 250 GeV polarized protons or 100 GeV/nucleon light and heavy ions. With these conditions, the EIC-I would provide a natural bridge from present-day fixed target facilities, among them in particular the 12 GeV upgrade of CEBAF at the Jefferson Laboratory which is the focus of the engulfing INT program, to a high-energy EIC machine colliding beams of 20-30 GeV electrons on beams of ~150 GeV/nucleon heavy ions and ~300 GeV protons.

We will address the following questions during the workshop: What are the "headline" physics issues that could be addressed by a stage-I machine? In which ways can the it add to studies performed at Jlab 12 GeV and at RHIC? What are the key processes, cross sections, kinematical regions, event rates? What is the status of the required theoretical tools? What are the machine and detector parameters required to meet these physics goals and to maximize the benefit for the high energy EIC?

We specifically plan to discuss the following topics in the light of the possibilities offered by EIC-I:

  • polarized quark and gluon distributions in the largely unexplored region of small x (<10-3) and high Q2
  • quark and gluon orbital angular momenta
  • transverse spin physics and single spin asymmetries
  • Generalized parton distribution functions (GPDs) and the spatial tomography of gluons and sea quarks
  • Gluon and sea quark momentum and spatial distributions in nuclei
  • Diffraction and exclusive vector meson production in nuclear DIS
  • Hadronization and Color Transparency in a nuclear medium
  • Parton saturation
  • Electroweak Physics in DIS

There is a mandatory workshop registration fee of $35, due upon arrival. Please pay in cash - exact change is preferred - or by U.S. check. We cannot accept credit cards.