All Eyes on EIC at IPAC'24 and in Rome as World Partners Gather

Momentum builds towards world's first fully polarized Electron-Ion Collider

July 17, 2024

Making the world’s first polarized Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) a reality is a massive and complex project that requires intense collaboration and partnership with experts across the U.S. and around the world. From building the accelerator and the detector to planning infrastructure and managing the project itself, the EIC relies on a vast array of skills and specialists.  

In just the past few months, members of the global scientific community and close supporters of the EIC have come together at two major meetings to plan the next steps to make the EIC — a groundbreaking project first conceived 22 years ago — a reality.  

First, from May 6-7 in Rome, representatives from 12 countries attended the first internationally hosted EIC Research Review Board (RRB) meeting — a gathering designed to strengthen global cooperation and detail the operational plans for the EIC detector’s construction and scientific objectives.  

Then, on May 21, during the 15th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC’24) in Nashville, Tennessee, the EIC Accelerator Collaboration held a kick-off event.  

“The EIC continues to build momentum as we increase the rate of technical progress and the participation of the worldwide community of scientists and accelerator experts,” said EIC Project Director Jim Yeck of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Our international partners continue to solidify their interests and support for EIC.”  

The EIC will be built at Brookhaven Lab and is being developed in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). Construction is expected to start in 2026 with operations beginning in the first half of the next decade. EIC’s collisions of polarized electrons with polarized protons and ions will begin unlocking the secrets of the building blocks of matter and the strongest force in nature.  

Beyond fundamental physics discoveries, the EIC may trigger technological advancements with broad-ranging impact on human health and national challenges. 

Already, the international community centered around the EIC is unprecedented in the nuclear physics community. The EIC Users Group now has 1,538 members from 297 institutions and 40 countries in six world regions. The electron-Proton and Ion Collider (ePIC) experiment, representing the detector for the EIC, is a collection of nearly 600 scientists and engineers from 171 institutions in 24 countries. 

“We’re excited that the world’s best and brightest physicists, engineers, technicians, and other professionals are joining us to tackle the technical challenges of building this facility so we can enter a new frontier in nuclear physics — the inner microcosm of atomic nuclei and individual protons,” said Yeck. 

EIC: ‘a very challenging machine’ 

Nearly 200 accelerator experts from the U.S. and around the world met at the EIC accelerator collaboration kickoff in Nashville.  

This collaboration calls on national and international expertise to contribute to the design and construction of the EIC accelerator components. The current design meets or exceeds the U.S. National Science Advisory Committee Long Range Plan recommendations and the requirements endorsed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.  

“We welcome the U.S. and international accelerator community to join the EIC accelerator collaboration, to face the EIC’s challenges, and to deliver this very challenging machine,” said EIC Technical Director Sergei Nagaitsev of Brookhaven Lab. 

The mission of the collaboration is to provide a discussion forum and a collaboration vehicle for the EIC accelerator-related working groups and topics; identify and create opportunities for institutions to contribute to the EIC construction project; identify and provide accelerator research and development (R&D) topics and opportunities; communicate to EIC stakeholders on behalf of the accelerator R&D community; and communicate to various long-range planning panels. 

The EIC was conceived as an international project and has since attracted large numbers of collaborators. Scientists from Europe, Asia, and Canada have been key partners in building the science program and plans for the accelerator facility and the experimental detector that will capture data from EIC collision events.  

In 2020 and 2021, EIC accelerator workshops held before the formation of this formal collaboration attracted hundreds of participants from more than 20 countries. Numerous technical meetings with representatives from national and international institutions provided more evidence of the widespread interest in such collaboration.  

“The EIC design, construction, and future upgrades will have many scientific and technical challenges, creating opportunities for a worldwide accelerator collaboration to become part of this exciting endeavor,” said Andrei Seryi of Jefferson Lab and co-chair of the EIC accelerator collaboration.  

To address these numerous technical challenges, the Collaboration has started to establish working groups that will specialize in areas such as beam dynamics, beam optics, and beam-beam effects, to name a few. 

“[The EIC Accelerator Collaboration] will benefit the EIC project, collaborating partners, and the wider community of accelerator experts. It will also enhance the evolution, upgrades, and ultimate performance of the EIC facility,” added Seryi. 

EIC Accelerator Collaboration Co-Chair Carsten Welsch of the University of Liverpool/Cockroft Institute, United Kingdom, added that discussions have begun with potential partner institutions for R&D focus areas. 

“By bringing together the best experts in the field, the science and discovery potential of this unique accelerator will be maximized,” said Welsch. “The launch of a formal charter and clear process for institutions to express their specific R&D interests in the EIC will help us coordinate discussions and ultimately international contributions.” 

The EIC Accelerator Collaboration continues to invite input from colleagues around the world who are interested in contributing to this global project.  

“The EIC Accelerator Collaboration will enhance the long-term evolution and performance of the EIC,” said Nagaitsev. “It should also help us construct the EIC more efficiently.” 

Early career accolades  

The success of a project of this complexity and magnitude relies on leveraging as much diverse talent as possible. Recognizing the importance of early career contributions, IPAC’24 awarded prizes to the four best student posters presented during the conference. Matthew Signorelli, a graduate student from Cornell University, won for best EIC-related poster. During the EIC Accelerator Collaboration kick-off event, meeting co-chairs Seryi and Welsch presented Signorelli with the award.  

Signorelli’s poster describes what he calls “the best adjustment groups for electron spins,” or BAGELS, to counteract “radiative depolarization.” This is a disruption in the controlled spin alignment of particles, such as electrons, that is caused by their radiation of energy as they move in a circular accelerator like the EIC. BAGELS works by introducing changes in the ring’s magnetic field to “bump” — or adjust the positions of — the charged particle beams to keep their spins aligned as they race around the accelerator. 

BAGELS has significantly increased the electrons’ polarization in simulations of the EIC electron storage ring, beyond what can be achieved with established methods. 

“Right now, the BAGELS method has only been applied in simulations,” Signorelli said. “I am eager to see the method applied in a real ring. I think the physics involved in both designing the accelerator itself and that eventually will be revealed in the collisions is very exciting,” he added. “I'm glad I could contribute to the design.”  

In presenting the award, collaboration co-chair Seryi noted, “It is very important to provide opportunities to early career researchers to contribute to the realization of the EIC to ensure continuity and enhancement of expertise for running this discovery machine for decades to come.”  

Working groups get to work  

In-person participation at IPAC and the EIC Accelerator Collaboration kick-off event also solidified working group organization.  

For example, the "beam-beam" working group, which focuses on the interaction between the two colliding particle beams at the EIC, will seek ways to minimize beam-beam effects that could interfere with physics results. 

At the EIC, one ring will carry an intense beam of electrons and the other one a high-energy beam of protons or heavier atomic nuclei, each with its own electromagnetic field. When these particles collide, the opposing electromagnetic forces affect particles’ trajectory and energy as well as the size of the beams.  

“We have to make sure that the overall motion is stable and that this does not result in an increase of the beam sizes,” said Brookhaven’s Christoph Montag, EIC accelerator design group leader and electron storage ring system manager. “These collisions are at the core of the machine.”  

When beams collide, the EIC detector will capture what happens during these collisions, which produce a spray of particles and energy, also known as “debris.” Scientists study this debris to reveal secrets about nature’s fundamental particles and forces. 

Having stable, controlled beams plays a crucial role in ensuring accelerator performance and quality data. 

EIC: ‘a model for international collaboration’ 

Just before IPAC’24, partners from the Czech Republic, France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan attended the third RRB meeting.  

Held in Rome, Italy, from May 6-7, the RRB meeting was hosted by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), the first international host for this high-level meeting. RRB is made up of representatives of the international funding agencies supporting institutions collaborating on the EIC detectors and representatives from Brookhaven and Jefferson Lab. 

The group meets twice a year and will provide coordination during detector development, construction, and operations.  

“[The RRB] meeting helps set the stage for the significant contributions we expect to make to the field of nuclear physics,” said Brookhaven National Laboratory Director JoAnne Hewett, who attended.    

Diego Bettoni, co-chair of the RRB meeting and vice president of INFN, remarked that INFN has a long tradition of collaborating with the U.S. and DOE national laboratories, and he expressed pleasure in continuing this tradition with the EIC.   

Harriett Kung, acting director for the DOE Office of Science, said that the EIC is a “very high priority” that she and her team are committed to delivering.  

“The EIC will become a model for international collaboration within the Office of Science,” she said. 

Kung expressed her gratitude to the RRB participants for their work and efforts to secure support from respective funding agencies and thanked the EIC team for the exciting progress achieved to date. 

Yeck provided project updates, emphasized the importance of securing sustained funding for the project, and assured RBB that the project was progressing according to plan.  

“The project continues to follow DOE’s critical Critical Decision (CD) approval process with the support of our international governance boards,” said Yeck. “The EIC continues to meet project milestones, most recently having received DOE CD-3A approval for purchasing long-lead procurements in March.”  

RRB meeting participants also discussed the importance of outreach and supporting next-generation career staff. 

“Our main goals are to expand the experimental community; create a science, technology, engineering, and math pipeline; provide opportunities for early career scientists in developing countries; and develop a truly diverse workforce,” said Brookhaven Lab physicist Elke Aschenauer, co-associate director for the EIC experimental program. “The EIC User Group is very international, and we can build our workforce on this.” 

The ever-evolving international circuit surrounding the EIC will convene once again at Brookhaven Lab in late 2024, when the next RRB meeting will be held. 

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov. 

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