• Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars

February 17, 2026 2:00 PM
PAIS 3205

Host:

Svende Braun

Presenter:

Xuan Li (LANL)

The future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will provide high-luminosity, high-energy electron+proton (e + p) and electron+nucleus (e + A) collisions over a wide range of center-of-mass energies (29 - 141 GeV), enabling new opportunities to address fundamental questions in nuclear and particle physics. In particular, the EIC will allow precision studies of the microscopic structure of nucleons and nuclei, as well as the mechanisms of hadronization. Heavy quarks, such as charm and bottom quarks, are especially valuable tools in these studies. Because of their large masses, they are created early in the collision process and carry clean information about their interactions with the surrounding nuclear environment. Measurements involving heavy-flavor particles and jets therefore provide unique insight into how quarks propagate through nuclear matter and how they transition into observable hadrons (i.e., hadronization). In this seminar, I will present recent simulation studies of heavy-flavor hadrons and jets at the EIC, using the latest projections of detector performance. We will evaluate how nuclear effects will modify heavy-flavor observables in e + p and e + A collisions across different collision energies. I will discuss what these measurements can teach us about quark energy loss and the process of hadron formation in cold nuclear matter. I will also briefly highlight LANL’s contributions to the development of silicon tracking detectors for the EIC and summarize recent progress in detector research and development, including work on Monolithic Active Pixel Sensor (MAPS) and AC-couple Low Gain Avalanche Detector (AC-LGAD) technologies.