Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) is a major new collider facility where polarized electrons will collide with polarized protons and light ions, and heavy nuclei at luminosities far beyond what is presently available. The facility will answer fundamental questions about the origin of mass and spin of the proton, and about gluon dynamics. Canadian subatomic physicists have participated intensively in the planning of the EIC and have chartered a multi-institutional EIC Canada Collaboration to coordinate participation. Over the past two years, worldwide EIC detector development efforts have consolidated into a single EPIC detector collaboration with active participation from EIC Canada, and we have grown through the recruitment of an additional faculty member. Members are involved in leadership positions in working groups of the EPIC Detector Collaboration and of the EIC Users Group. This proposal requests support for HQP at U. Regina, U. Manitoba, and Mt. Allison U. Due the rapid pace at which the EIC project is progressing, we request support in two-year increments to allow for frequent re-evaluation of the optimal level of support. In this project period we will support two partial postdoctoral researchers at U. Regina, one partial postdoctoral researcher at U. Manitoba, two Ph.D. students at U. Regina, two Ph.D. students and one M.Sc. student at U. Manitoba, four summer undergraduate researchers at Mt. Allison U., and two summer undergraduate researchers at U. Manitoba. These HQP will: - extend pion form factor studies to kaon channels in the EPIC detector geometry to assess how meson form factors can be used to study emergent mass generation in hadrons, - lead beam tests for the Pb/SciFi barrel calorimeter option in the EPIC detector, - develop and test photoproduction event generators for XYZ spectroscopy, - lead track reconstruction development for the EIC through development within ACTS (A Common Tracking Software), - develop machine learning approaches for calorimeter design optimization and for kinematics reconstruction in deep-inelastic scattering events, - extend studies of leptoquark sensitivity at the EIC to a full set of leptoquark channels, - perform feasibility studies of parity-violating electron scattering to determine interference structure functions, - progress the EIC electron beam Compton polarimeter design and develop a concept for an HV-MAPS electron detector, - build a functional prototype for the electron endcap calorimeter with lead tungstate crystals and silicon photomultiplier arrays. By engaging HQP in the activities of EIC Canada and the EIC collaboration, we will prepare them well for future careers both inside and outside research. In particular, the postdoctoral researchers will be well prepared for faculty positions with a research focus on EIC. Our proposed activities will position us well for Canadian involvement in key detector construction activities, to be supported by future infrastructure funding.