The LHCspin project

TL;DR

LHCspin aims to develop advanced technologies for spin physics in polarized fixed-target collisions at the LHC, leveraging LHCb's geometry to explore high-x regimes and new physics opportunities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fixed-target setup at LHCb capable of studying polarized collisions and exploring uncharted kinematic regions.

Findings

LHCb can reconstruct particles in fixed-target mode with high precision.

The project enables simultaneous collection of unpolarized and polarized collision data.

Potential to explore high-x parton distribution functions and spin phenomena.

Abstract

The goal of LHCspin is to develop, in the next few years, innovative solutions and cutting-edge technologies to access spin physics in polarised fixed-target collisions at high energy, exploring the unique kinematic regime offered by LHC and exploiting new final states by means of the LHCb detector. The forward geometry of the LHCb spectrometer is perfectly suited for the reconstruction of particles produced in fixed-target collisions. This configuration, with centre of mass energies ranging from $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=115~\rm{GeV}$ in $p-p$ interactions to $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=72~\rm{GeV}$ in heavy ion collisions, allows to cover a wide backward rapidity region, including the poorly explored high$-x$ regime. With the instrumentation of the proposed target system, LHCb will become the first experiment simultaneously collecting unpolarised beam-beam collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=14~\rm{TeV}$ and both unpolarised and polarised beam-target collisions. The status of the project is presented along with a selection of physics opportunities.