Nuclear Fragmentation at the Future Electron-Ion Collider

TL;DR

This paper investigates nuclear fragmentation processes at the future Electron-Ion Collider, comparing theoretical models with LHC data, and highlights the potential and limitations of EIC for photonuclear physics studies.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for nuclear fragmentation at the EIC and compares it with LHC data, revealing the EIC's potential and challenges for photonuclear research.

Findings

Fragmentation cross-sections at EIC are about 1,000 times smaller than at LHC.

EIC fragmentation dominated by neutron emission with fewer fission products.

LHC uranium fragmentation shows characteristic double-hump mass distributions.

Abstract

We explore the potential of conducting low-energy nuclear physics studies, including nuclear structure and decay, at the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at Brookhaven. By comparing the standard theory of electron-nucleus scattering with the equivalent photon method applied to Ultraperipheral Collisions (UPC) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. In the limit of extremely high beam energies and small energy transfers, very transparent equations emerge. We apply these equations to analyze nuclear fragmentation in UPCs at the LHC and $eA$ scattering at the EIC, demonstrating that the EIC could facilitate unique photonuclear physics studies. However, we have also shown that the fragmentation cross-sections at the EIC are about 1,000 times smaller than those at the LHC. At the LHC, the fragmentation of uranium nuclei displays characteristic double-hump mass distributions from fission events, while at the EIC, fragmentation is dominated by neutron emission and fewer few fission products, about 10,000 smaller number of events.