EIC: Present and Future
A new large-scale particle collider, slated to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory,
will put Long Island at the forefront of world-wide nuclear physics research and will
start construction at the end of next year.
Introduction
The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a state-of-the-art, 2.4-mile-circumference accelerator
complex to be built at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory
in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The EIC
will be a large-scale collider — the only collider in the Americas — and has the potential
to attract many users both domestically and internationally. Unlike any other machine
in the world, it will accelerate and collide polarized — or spin-controlled — electrons
with polarized protons and ions so that scientists can peer inside the nucleus of
the atom and inside the individual protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus –
for the first time ever.
Longstanding questions people working on the EIC will seek to answer include:
• How do subatomic building blocks with virtually no mass — quarks and gluons — interact
to produce the mass of the proton and all we see in the universe?
• What is the nature of the gluons that “glue” visible matter together, and how do they generate the strongest force in nature?
• How does a proton’s spin — a fundamental property used in medical imaging yet not fully understood — arise from its quarks and gluons?
Students and the EIC
The EIC will offer countless educational opportunities for students of all backgrounds
from high school to graduate school, and for training a highly skilled workforce —
the scientists, engineers, and tech-savvy workers who will imagine and implement the
technological advances of tomorrow.
As the only particle collider of its kind in the world, the EIC will be a unique resource
for providing educational opportunities and workforce training for next-generation
engineers, technicians, and physicists.
These skilled workers may apply their expertise directly in the fields of accelerator
and nuclear science, or across a wide range of disciplines where such skills are needed
in jobs across the economy. Students across the U.S. and around the world collaborating
on EIC detector design will gain valuable hands-on experience designing, testing,
and constructing sophisticated electronic components — and invaluable insight into
large-scale science collaboration and the international nature of physics research.
Already, the EIC project relies on the talents and expertise of many specializing
in science and accelerator technologies – some of whom are early career professionals
and graduate students.
As one of the most challenging and exciting accelerator complexes ever built, the
EIC will attract the world’s best and brightest scientists and engineers to expand
the boundaries of accelerator and particle detector technologies, as well as provide
incredible opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers. From
the design of the accelerator to scientific experiments, early career professionals
and advanced-level students are already contributing to the development of the EIC.
The breadth of talent needed to design and build and run the EIC is as diverse as
its almost infinite components. As described in more detail below, already more than
1,500 scientists are engaged in developing the science program and experiments for
the EIC!
Two major research centers—the EIC Center at Jefferson Lab and the Center for Frontiers
in Nuclear Science at Stony Brook University (a managing partner of Brookhaven Lab)—are
helping to foster scientific collaborations.
More than the Sum of its Parts
Components required to build the EIC include:
• Superconducting radiofrequency cavities
• Powerful magnets
• Vacuum systems, power supplies, and cryogenic refrigeration systems
• A sophisticated, multicomponent detector with thousands of microelectronic sensors
to detect, track, and characterize particles produced in collisions
• Advanced computational tools for managing and analyzing data
International and Collaborative
The EIC is an inherently international and collaborative project. It will require
the talent and hard work of experts and early career professionals from around the
U.S. and world. Already, the EIC boasts an impressive domestic and global reach: More
than 1,500 scientists are engaged in developing the science program and experiments
for the EIC:
• The 1,500+ future EIC users come from nearly 300 institutions in 40 countries —
including 80+ U.S. universities.
• A subgroup of these scientists — including many from Brookhaven Lab and Jefferson
Lab and six other DOE national laboratories, 19 U.S. universities, and institutions
from
20 countries — is developing technologies needed to build the EIC.
• One scientific collaboration – ePIC, representing the EIC detector -- is already
designing the EIC’s first experiment, a house-sized detector that will capture particles
streaming from collisions so scientists can transform data into discoveries.
US Leadership
“The EIC will elucidate the origin of visible matter in the universe and significantly
advance accelerator technology.” — U.S. Nuclear Science Advisory Committee
“The science questions that an EIC will answer are central to completing an understanding
of atoms as well as being integral to the agenda of nuclear physics today … The science
… is unique and world leading and will ensure global U.S. leadership in nuclear science,
accelerator science, and the technology of colliders.” — U.S. National Academy of
Sciences
Electron-Ion Collider Project Update