Physics with high-luminosity proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC
D. d'Enterria, C. A. Flett, I. Grabowska-Bold, C. Hadjidakis, P. Kotko, A. Kusina, J. P. Lansberg, R. McNulty, M. Rinaldi, L. Bonechi, R. Bruce, C. Da Silva, E. G. Ferreiro, S. Fichet, L. Harland-Lang, G. Innocenti, F. Jonas, J. M. Jowett, R. Longo, K. Lynch, C. McGinn, T. Pierog, M. Pitt, S. Redaelli, B. Schenke, I. Schienbein, M. Stefaniak, M. Strikman, L. Szymanowski, D. Tapia Takaki, C. Van Hulse, S. Wallon
公開日: 2025/4/5
Abstract
The physics case for the operation of high-luminosity proton-nucleus ($pA$) collisions during Run 3 and 4 at the LHC is reviewed. The collection of $\mathcal{O}$(1-10 pb$^{-1}$) of proton-lead ($p$Pb) collisions at the LHC will provide unique physics opportunities in a broad range of topics including proton and nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs and nPDFs), generalised parton distributions (GPDs), transverse momentum dependent PDFs (TMDs), low-$x$ QCD and parton saturation, hadron spectroscopy, baseline studies for quark-gluon plasma and parton collectivity, double and triple parton scatterings (DPS/TPS), photon-photon collisions, and physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM); which are not otherwise as clearly accessible by exploiting data from any other colliding system at the LHC. This report summarises the accelerator aspects of high-luminosity $pA$ operation at the LHC, as well as each of the physics topics outlined above, including the relevant experimental measurements that motivate -- much -- larger $pA$ datasets.