Future Electron-Hadron Colliders

Abstract

Outstanding research potential of electron-hadron colliders (EHC) was clearly demonstrated by first - and the only - electron-proton collider HERA (DESY, Germany). Physics data from HERA revealed new previously unknown facets of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). EHC is an ultimate microscope probing QCD in its natural environment, i.e. inside the hadrons. In contrast with hadrons, electrons are elementary particles with known initial state. Hence, scattering electrons from hadrons provides a clearest pass to their secrets. It turns EHC into an ultimate machine for high precision QCD studies and opens access to rich physics with a great discovery potential: solving proton spin puzzle, observing gluon saturation or physics beyond standard model. Access to this physics requires high-energy high-luminosity EHCs and a wide reach in the center-of-mass (CM) energies. This paper gives a brief overview of four proposed electron-hadron colliders: ENC at GSI (Darmstadt, Germany), ELIC/MEIC at TJNAF (Newport News, VA, USA), eRHIC at BNL (Upton, NY, USA) and LHeC at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland). Future electron-hadron colliders promise to deliver very rich physics not only in the quantity but also in the precision. They are aiming at very high luminosity two-to-four orders of magnitude beyond the luminosity demonstrated by the very successful HERA. While ENC and LHeC are on opposite side of the energy spectrum, eRHIC and ELIC are competing for becoming an electron-ion collider (EIC) in the U.S. Administrations of BNL and Jlab, in concert with US DoE office of Nuclear Physics, work on the strategy for down-selecting between eRHIC and ELIC. The ENC, EIC and LHeC QCD physics programs to a large degree are complimentary to each other and to the LHC physics. In last decade, an Electron Ion Collider (EIC) collaboration held about 25 collaboration meetings to develop physics program for EIC with CM energy {approx}100 GeV. One of these meetings was held at GSI, where ENC topic was in the center of discussions. First dedicated LHeC workshop was held in 2008, with a number of dedicated workshops following it. Intense accelerator R&D program is needed to address the challenges posed by the EIC.