NSF-BSF: Saturation and Quantum Coherence: Gearing up for EIC

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Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory describing the fundamental interactions between quarks and gluons, the fundamental constituents of the atomic nucleus. In the QCD framework, nuclear physicists are studying the behavior of matter under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, and density using highly energetic collisions between particles accelerated at high-energy. The latter is the focus of intense experimental research using high-energy particle beams at leading particle physics collider facilities such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC). Detailed comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental observations are critical for the success of those scientific programs. In this context, the PI and his collaborators will study the saturation of the gluonic density in hadrons at high energy that is being investigated experimentally using Ultra Peripheral Collisions (UPC) at the LHC and will be studied using Deeply Inelastic Scattering (DIS) on nuclei at the future EIC. This project will provide training opportunities for students. The PI will also organize a summer school for intermediate and advanced graduate students on physics topics specific to this project.This project proposes to study correlations in hadronic wave function at high energy using extension of the methods currently available to the community. In particular by adapting the quantum mechanical Born-Oppenheimer approximation to systems with continuum of time scales, one should be able to improve on the understanding as well as accuracy of the high energy evolution. Practical implementation of such a procedure is one of the goals of the current project. Another interesting question is dependence of correlated particle production on the virtuality of the photon starting from UPC to highly virtual DIS. Probing the transition between the regime dominated by quantum coherence effects to the dominance of classical color domains is a goal of this project. A study of the relation between the entanglement in the hadronic wave function and possible Eigenstate thermalization behavior after a high energy collision, described by a quench is also our goal. The focus here will be on the behavior of semi hard modes which have quasi thermal distribution already in the precollision projectile wave function.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.