An Experiment for Electron-Hadron Scattering at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores the design and potential physics of a future electron-hadron scattering experiment at the LHC, aiming to extend high-energy physics research and address fundamental questions in nuclear and particle physics.

Contribution

It proposes a novel combined accelerator and detector design for an electron-hadron collider at the LHC, integrating physics goals with innovative technical solutions.

Findings

Design considerations for a future LHeC detector and accelerator

Potential for combined $eh$ and $hh$ collision experiments

New opportunities for high-energy nuclear and particle physics

Abstract

Novel considerations are presented on the physics, apparatus and accelerator designs for a future, luminous, energy frontier electron-hadron ($eh$) scattering experiment at the LHC in the thirties for which key physics topics and their relation to the hadron-hadron HL-LHC physics programme are discussed. Demands are derived set by these physics topics on the design of the LHeC detector, a corresponding update of which is described. Optimisations on the accelerator design, especially the interaction region (IR), are presented. Initial accelerator considerations indicate that a common IR is possible to be built which alternately could serve $eh$ and $hh$ collisions while other experiments would stay on $hh$ in either condition. A forward-backward symmetrised option of the LHeC detector is sketched which would permit extending the LHeC physics programme to also include aspects of hadron-hadron physics. The vision of a joint $eh$ and $hh$ physics experiment is shown to open new prospects for solving fundamental problems of high energy heavy-ion physics including the partonic structure of nuclei and the emergence of hydrodynamics in quantum field theory while the genuine TeV scale DIS physics is of unprecedented rank.