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  • Exploring the Nature of Matter

    Plans and proposals for the next, great physics machine for studying the intrinsic bits of everyday matter are starting to form. The proposed Electron-Ion Collider could ensure that the cutting-edge science that has kept Jefferson Lab and the United States at the frontier of nuclear physics research for 25 years will continue for decades to come.

  • The next large nuclear physics research facility being proposed to the DOE for construction is an Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). An EIC could provide unique capabilities for the study of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the theory that describes how quarks and gluons build protons, neutrons and nuclei. In March 2013, NSAC ranked an EIC as “absolutely central” in its ability to contribute to world-leading science research. Two facilities, Jefferson Lab and Brookhaven National Lab in New York, are developing facility concepts.

  • A Jefferson Lab EIC would accelerate two beams of sub-atomic particles to nearly the speed of light before slamming the beams together. A stream of electrons and a stream of protons or ions would collide at two interaction points. These interaction points will be surrounded by large detectors, which will record the results of these interactions for scientists to interpret.

  • Building an Electron-Ion Collider at Jefferson Lab would capitalize on the lab’s existing Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility and on the lab’s expertise in designing and building particle accelerators. The essential new elements of an EIC facility at Jefferson Lab would include an electron storage ring and an entirely new, modern ion acceleration and storage complex that would be constructed in a large-scale civil engineering project.

  • The Electron-Ion Collider is considered to be essential to the United States’ ability to contribute to world-leading scientific research. Researchers hope such a machine can help answer fundamental questions about ordinary matter, revealing for the first time and in detail how matter’s smallest building blocks and nature’s universal forces combine to build our visible universe.

  • EIC Center at Jefferson Lab

    The Electron-Ion Collider Center at Jefferson Lab (EIC2@JLab) is an organization to advance and promote the science program at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) facility. Particular emphasis is on the close connection of EIC science to the current Jefferson Lab 12 GeV CEBAF science program.   

    "EIC Center"At the heart of the atom are protons and neutrons. The characteristics and interactions of neutrons and protons, singly and collectively in the nuclei are responsible for how our cosmos developed and how our sun provides the heat that sustains the eco-system on earth. 

    While we have known for 50 years that protons and neutrons are made of quarks and gluons (represented in the figure to the left as spheres with arrows and springs, respectively), we are just beginning to learn how to image the structure and interactions inside protons and neutrons that are at the femto-scale, a million times smaller than the nano-scale of modern micro-electronics.

    Jefferson Lab has been at the forefront of this research; the current 12 GeV CEBAF program at JLab is world-leading in this science. The proposed Electron-Ion Collider will be the ultimate instrument for this new science: nuclear femtography.

     

     

    More detailed information about the Electron-Ion Collider can be found at the following links:

     

    NEWS:

    JLab News: Nuclear Science Advisory Committee Issues Plan for U.S. Nuclear Physics Research

    Featured Video
    Featured video caption
    Charting the Inner Structure of the Proton
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    Electron Scattering off the Proton Inside the Nucleus
    Electron Scattering off the Proton Inside the Nucleus
    Quarks and Gluons Inside Protons and Neutrons
    Quarks and Gluons Inside Protons and Neutrons