Speaker
Prof.
Paul Newman
(University of Birmingham (UK))
Description
The Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) is a proposed facility which will exploit the LHC heavy ion beam for electron-nucleus scattering, using a new 60 GeV electron accelerator. This contribution, which is derived from the detailed simulations in the recently released Conceptual Design report, addresses the expected physics impact of the LHeC for heavy ion physics and nuclear parton density determinations. The kinematic coverage extends beyond previous deep inelastic lepton-ion experiments by nearly four orders of magnitude at low Bjorken x (from x ~ 10^-2 to x~ 10^-6) and is expected to be sufficient to reveal the non-linear dynamics which tame the low x growth of parton densities. The inclusive electron-lead cross section, as well as exclusive and diffractive channels, are explored as means of probing this new region of very high parton densities.
Author
Prof.
Paul Newman
(University of Birmingham (UK))