Experimental Scheme for Polarizing the Boron Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper proposes an experimental method to polarize boron-10 nuclei using optical pumping, aiming to facilitate the study of gluonic states in nuclei at future electron-ion colliders.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical pumping scheme to polarize boron-10 nuclei, enabling new experimental investigations of exotic gluons in nuclear physics.

Findings

Proposed an optical pumping method for boron-10 polarization.

Discussed technical challenges for implementation at EIC.

Highlighted potential for enhanced pB fusion cross section.

Abstract

Unravelling the internal structure of hadrons and nuclei in terms of the quarks and gluons of Quantum Chromodynamics is a central focus of current nuclear physics research. Directly observing gluonic states in the nucleus would be groundbreaking and is an objective of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Over thirty years ago, Jaffe and Manohar identified a new double-helicity flip structure function, directly sensitive to exotic gluons. They pointed out that this could be measured in inclusive high-energy electron scattering from a transversely polarized nuclear target with spin $I \ge 1$. Here, we identify the spin-3 nucleus boron-10 as a particularly interesting system to search for exotic gluons. Leveraging technical advances in atomic physics over the past decade, we outline an experimental scheme to directly optically pump a beam of stable boron atoms to polarize the nuclear spin. Technical challenges to realize a spin-polarized beam of boron-10 in the EIC are discussed. The proposed scheme will also polarize the $^{11}$B nucleus, which could significantly enhance the pB fusion cross section.