Snowmass 2021 White Paper: Electron Ion Collider for High Energy Physics

TL;DR

The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is a planned advanced particle accelerator in the US designed to collide polarized electrons with protons and ions, enabling new insights into fundamental particle physics.

Contribution

This white paper outlines the scientific potential and significance of the EIC as a major new facility for high energy physics research.

Findings

EIC will be one of the largest and most sophisticated accelerators worldwide.

EIC will uniquely enable studies of the internal structure of protons and ions.

EIC will address fundamental questions in particle physics.

Abstract

Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is a particle accelerator facility planned for construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York by the United States Department of Energy. EIC will provide capabilities of colliding beams of polarized electrons with polarized beams of proton and light ions. EIC will be one of the largest and most sophisticated new accelerator facilities worldwide, and the only new large-scale accelerator facility planned for construction in the United States in the next few decades. The versatility, resolving power and intensity of EIC will present many new opportunities to address some of the crucial and fundamental open scientific questions in particle physics. This document provides an overview of the science case of EIC from the perspective of the high energy physics community.