Speaker
Jean-Philippe Lansberg
(IPN Orsay, Paris Sud U. / IN2P3-CNRS)
Description
We discuss the physics opportunities [1] which are offered by a next generation and multi-purpose fixed-target experiment exploiting the LHC beams. The multi-TeV LHC proton beam grants the most energetic fixed-target experiment ever performed, to study pp, pd and pA collisions at sqrt(s_NN) ~ 115 GeV. AFTER@LHC -- for A Fixed-Target ExperRiment -- gives access to new domains of particle and nuclear physics complementing that of collider experiments, in particular RHIC and the projects of electron-ion colliders.
With a beam extracted by a bent crystal, the typical instantaneous luminosity achievable with AFTER@LHC in pp and pA mode [1] surpasses that of RHIC by more than 3 orders of magnitude and is comparable to that of the LHC collider mode, without pile-up thanks to the slow extraction mode. Another possibility is offered by the LCHb SMOG system, with a priori a limited luminosity, though. This provides a quarkonium, prompt photon and heavy-flavour observatory [1,2] in pp and pA collisions where, by instrumenting the target-rapidity region, gluon and heavy-quark distributions of the proton, the neutron and the nuclei can be accessed at large x and even at x larger than unity in the nuclear case. The nuclear target-species versatility provides a unique opportunity to study the nuclear matter versus the hot and dense matter formed in heavy-ion collisions. Modern detection technology should allow for the study of quarkonium excited states, in particular the chi(c) and chi(b) resonances thanks to the boost of the fixed-target mode. This would allow one to study gluon TMDs as suggested for instance in [3]. The fixed-target mode also has the advantage to allow for spin measurements with polarized targets, for instance single-spin asymmetries for Drell-Yan pair production [4]. We will review all these aspects and show first simulation results.
References
[1] S. J. Brodsky, F. Fleuret, C. Hadjidakis and J. P. Lansberg, Phys. Rept. 108 522 (2013) 239.
[2] J. P. Lansberg, S. J. Brodsky, F. Fleuret and C. Hadjidakis, Few Body Syst. 53 (2012) 11-25
[3] D. Boer and C. Pisano, Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012) 094007
[4] T. Liu and B.Q. Ma, Eur. Phys. J. C 72 (2012) 2037
Primary authors
Andry Rakotozafindrabe
(CEA/IRFU,Centre d'etude de Saclay Gif-sur-Yvette (FR))
Mr
Bernard Genolini
(IPN Orsay (CNRS-IN2P3-Univ. Paris Sud))
Cynthia Hadjidakis
(Universite de Paris-Sud 11 (FR))
Elena Gonzalez Ferreiro
(Universidad de Santiago de Compostela)
Enrico Scomparin
(Universita e INFN (IT))
Francois Arleo
(LAPTH, Annecy-le-Vieux)
Frédéric Fleuret
(LLR Ecole Polytechnique, IN2P3/CNRS)
Ingo Schienbein
(Universite Joseph Fourier)
Jean-Philippe Lansberg
(IPN Orsay, Paris Sud U. / IN2P3-CNRS)
Mauro Anselmino
(Unknown)
Dr
Ralf Matthias Ulrich
(KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE))
Roberta Arnaldi
(Universita e INFN (IT))
Rune Mikkelsen
(Aarhus)
Prof.
Stanley J. Brodsky
(SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University)
Ulrik Uggerhoj
(Aarhus University (DK))
Valerie Chambert
(IPN Orsay)
Yuanning Gao
(Tsinghua University (CN))
Zhenwei Yang
(Tsinghua University (CN))
