I will discuss how the electron ion collider (EIC) will be able to measure the conjectured phenomena of gluon saturation, as well as making precision measurements of gluon spatial distributions and fluctuations, using diffractive events. While the charge radius of the proton is well known, its gluon radius and shape has never been measured. Furthermore, gluons exist in nature solely as vacuum fluctuations, and measuring how they fluctuate inside heavy nuclei will put to the test our understanding of quantum field theory and the QCD vacuum. It turns out that a firm handle of initial state spatial distributions and fluctuations of gluons also play an important role in our understanding of heavy ions collisions at the LHC and RHIC, as well as for some aspects of the young universe shortly after Big Bang.
Lunch will be served prior to the seminar (noon) by RSVP only: paula.farnsworth@yale.edu