Deep Inelastic Electron-Nucleon Scattering at the LHC

TL;DR

The paper discusses the design and scientific potential of the proposed Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC), which would enable high-precision deep-inelastic scattering experiments at unprecedented energies and luminosities, complementing existing LHC programs.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed design for the LHeC and highlights its potential to explore new states of matter and improve understanding of hadron structure at TeV scales.

Findings

LHeC can achieve Q^2 beyond 10^6 GeV^2

Bjorken x can be probed down to 10^{-6}

Enhanced sensitivity to new states of matter

Abstract

The physics, and a design, of a Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) are sketched. With high luminosity, 10^{33}cm^{-2}s^{-1}, and high energy, \sqrt{s}=1.4 TeV, such a collider can be built in which a 70 GeV electron (positron) beam in the LHC tunnel is in collision with one of the LHC hadron beams and which operates simultaneously with the LHC. The LHeC makes possible deep-inelastic lepton-hadron (ep, eD and eA) scattering for momentum transfers Q^2 beyond 10^6 GeV^2 and for Bjorken x down to the 10^{-6}. New sensitivity to the existence of new states of matter, primarily in the lepton-quark sector and in dense partonic systems, is achieved. The precision possible with an electron-hadron experiment brings in addition crucial accuracy in the determination of hadron structure, as described in Quantum Chromodynamics, and of parton dynamics at the TeV energy scale. The LHeC thus complements the proton-proton and ion programmes, adds substantial new discovery potential to them, and is important for a full understanding of physics in the LHC energy range.