2018/12/17 by Citron, Z., Dainese, A., Grosse-Oetringhaus, J. F. +182 · 10 citations
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1812.06772
The future opportunities for high-density QCD studies with ion and proton beams at the LHC are presented. Four major scientific goals are identified: the characterisation of the macroscopic long wavelength Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) properties with unprecedented precision, the investigation of the microscopic parton dynamics underlying QGP properties, the development of a unified picture of particle production and QCD dynamics from small (pp) to large (nucleus--nucleus) systems, the exploration of parton densities in nuclei in a broad (x, Q2) kinematic range and the search for the possible onset of parton saturation. In order to address these scientific goals, high-luminosity Pb-Pb and p-Pb programmes are considered as priorities for Runs 3 and 4, complemented by high-multiplicity studies in pp collisions and a short run with oxygen ions. High-luminosity runs with intermediate-mass nuclei, for example Ar or Kr, are considered as an appealing case for extending the heavy-ion programme at the LHC beyond Run 4. The potential of the High-Energy LHC to probe QCD matter with newly-available observables, at twice larger center-of-mass energies than the LHC, is investigated.