The community-wide "EIC Theory Alliance Meeting" hosted by UCLA will be held virtually via zoom platform during February 6 - 8, 2023. This meeting will summarize the white paper that is currently under development by the theory community, which outlines the case for the creation of the EIC Theory Alliance. This alliance will coordinate and guide a broad theory effort to enhance the broad scientific impact of EIC facilities in the coming decades.
The Electron ion collider (EIC) was named the highest-priority new construction project in the 2015 Nuclear Physics Long Range Plan. The main goal of EIC is to study the partonic structure of hadrons and nuclei, including the multi-dimensional partonic structure and gluon saturation. EIC will be the ultimate QCD machine, and its reach will be far broader than that of other related facilities, HERA, CEBAF, and RHIC. However, there are other areas of physics, where EIC can greatly contribute, hadron spectroscopy, nuclear structure, and test of fundamental symmetries. There are also synergies with high energy physics, like the precision determination of parton densities. To explore all these opportunities a robust theory effort is needed.
To assess the theory needs and challenges of EIC a CFNS workshop "Theory for EIC in the next decade was organized at MIT on September 20-22, 2022. The workshop was held in a hybrid format and attracted 65 participants. There were 15 talks and 7 discussion sessions at the workshop. The discussions of the workshop concluded with the resolution sessions, where it was determined that the best way to address the theory needs for EIC is to create an EIC theory alliance. The resolution of the workshop, which was adopted unanimously by the participants reads: "We recommend the establishment of a national EIC theory alliance to enhance and broaden the theory community needed to advance EIC physics goals and the experimental program. This theory alliance will develop a diverse workforce through a competitive national EIC theory fellow program and tenure-track bridge positions, including appointments at minority-serving institutions."
