Harmonics of Parton Saturation in Lepton-Jet Correlations at the EIC

TL;DR

This paper explores how azimuthal angle anisotropies in lepton-jet correlations at the EIC can reveal parton saturation effects, showing significant nuclear modifications that differ from collinear predictions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the sensitivity of azimuthal anisotropies to saturation momentum and highlights observable nuclear modifications in lepton-jet correlations at the EIC.

Findings

Significant nuclear modification of anisotropies in e+Au vs. e+p collisions

Azimuthal anisotropies are sensitive to saturation momentum

Potential for quantitative saturation analysis at the EIC

Abstract

Parton saturation is one of the most intriguing phenomena in the high energy nuclear physics research frontier, especially in the upcoming era of the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The lepton-jet correlation in deep inelastic scattering provides us with a new gateway to the parton saturation at the EIC. In particular, we demonstrate that azimuthal angle anisotropies of the lepton-jet correlation are sensitive to the strength of the saturation momentum in the EIC kinematic region. In contrast to the predictions based on the collinear framework calculation, significant nuclear modification of the anisotropies is observed when we compare the saturation physics results in e + p and e + Au scatterings. By measuring these harmonic coefficients at the EIC, one can conduct quantitative analysis in different collisional systems and unveil compelling evidence for saturation effects.