A key feature of the Medium-energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) at Jefferson Lab is high polarization (over 80%) of the electron beam at all collision points for the particle physics program. The equilibrium electron polarization is arranged to be vertical in the arcs of the figure-8 collider ring of the MEIC and anti-parallel to the arc dipole magnetic fields, in order to take advantage of the preservation of polarization by the Sokolov-Ternov (S-T) effect. Longitudinal polarization is achieved at collision points by utilizing energy-independent universal spin rotators each of which consists of a set of solenoids and dipoles placed at the end of an arc. The equilibrium beam polarization and its lifetime depend on competition between the S-T effect and radiative depolarization. The latter must be suppressed by spin matching. This paper reports on investigations of polarization in the MEIC electron collider ring and a preliminary estimate of beam polarization from calculations using the code SLICK.

Researchers have envisioned an electron-ion collider with ion species up to heavy ions, high polarization of electrons and light ions, and a well-matched center-of-mass energy range as an ideal gluon microscope to explore new frontiers of nuclear science. In its most recent Long Range Plan, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) of the US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation endorsed such a collider in the form of a 'half-recommendation.' As a response to this science need, Jefferson Lab and its user community have been engaged in feasibility studies of a medium energy polarized electron-ion collider (MEIC), cost-effectively utilizing Jefferson Lab's already existing Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). In close collaboration, this community of nuclear physicists and accelerator scientists has rigorously explored the science case and design concept for this envisioned grand instrument of science. An electron-ion collider embodies the vision of reaching the next frontier in Quantum Chromodynamics - understanding the behavior of hadrons as complex bound states of quarks and gluons. Whereas the 12 GeV Upgrade of CEBAF will map the valence-quark components of the nucleon and nuclear wave functions in detail, an electron-ion collider will determine the largely unknown role sea quarks play and for the first time study the glue that binds all atomic nuclei. The MEIC will allow nuclear scientists to map the spin and spatial structure of quarks and gluons in nucleons, to discover the collective effects of gluons in nuclei, and to understand the emergence of hadrons from quarks and gluons. The proposed electron-ion collider at Jefferson Lab will collide a highly polarized electron beam originating from the CEBAF recirculating superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) linear accelerator (linac) with highly polarized light-ion beams or unpolarized light- to heavy-ion beams from a new ion accelerator and storage complex. Since the very beginning, the design studies at Jefferson Lab have focused on achieving high collider performance, particularly ultrahigh luminosities up to 1034 cm−2s−1 per detector with large acceptance, while maintaining high polarization for both the electron and light-ion beams. These are the two key performance requirements of a future electron-ion collider facility as articulated by the NSAC Long Range Plan. In MEIC, a new ion complex is designed specifically to deliver ion beams that match the high bunch repetition and highly polarized electron beam from CEBAF. During the last two years, both development of the science case and optimization of the machine design point toward a medium-energy electron-ion collider as the topmost goal for Jefferson Lab. The MEIC, with relatively compact collider rings, can deliver a luminosity above 1034 cm−2s−1 at a center-of-mass energy up to 65 GeV. It offers an electron energy up to 11 GeV, a proton energy up to 100 GeV, and corresponding energies per nucleon for heavy ions with the same magnetic rigidity. This design choice balances the scope of the science program, collider capabilities, accelerator technology innovation, and total project cost. An energy upgrade could be implemented in the future by adding two large collider rings housed in another large tunnel to push the center-of-mass energy up to or exceeding 140 GeV. After careful consideration of an alternative electron energy recovery linac on ion storage ring approach, a ring-ring collider scenario at high bunch repetition frequency was found to offer fully competitive performance while eliminating the uncertainties of challenging R & D on ampere-class polarized electron sources and many-pass energy-recovery linacs (ERLs). The essential new elements of an MEIC facility at Jefferson Lab are an electron storage ring and an entirely new, modern ion acceleration and storage complex. For the high-current electron collider ring, the upgraded 12 GeV CEBAF SRF linac will serve as a full-energy injector, and, if needed, provide top-off refilling. The CEBAF fixed-target nuclear physics program can be simultaneously operated since the filling time of the electron ring is very short. The ion complex for MEIC consists of sources for polarized light ions and unpolarized light to heavy ions, an SRF ion linac with proton energy up to 280 MeV, a 3 GeV prebooster synchrotron, a large booster synchrotron for proton energy up to 20 GeV, and a medium-energy collider ring with energy up to 100 GeV. The ion complex can accelerate other species of ions with corresponding energies at each accelerating stage. There are three collision points planned for MEIC. Two of them are for collisions with medium-energy ions; the third is for low energy ion beams stored in a dedicated low-energy compact storage ring, as a possible follow-on project.

The Medium-energy Electron Ion Collider (MEIC) at JLab is designed to provide high luminosity and high polarization needed to reach new frontiers in the exploration of nuclear structure. The luminosity, exceeding 1033 cm-2s-1 in a broad range of the center-of-mass (CM) energy and maximum luminosity above 1034 cm-2s-1, is achieved by high-rate collisions of short small-emittance low-charge bunches made possible by high-energy electron cooling of the ion beam and synchrotron radiation damping of the electron beam. The polarization of light ion species (p, d, 3He) can be easily preserved and manipulated due to the unique figure-8 shape of the collider rings. A fully consistent set of parameters have been developed considering the balance of machine performance, required technical development and cost. This paper reports recent progress on the MEIC accelerator design including electron and ion complexes, integrated interaction region design, figure-8-ring-based electron and ion polarization schemes, RF/SRF systems and ERL-based high-energy electron cooling. Luminosity performance is also presented for the MEIC baseline design.

A polarized ep/eA collider (Electron-Ion Collider, or EIC) with variable center-of-mass energy √s ≈ 20-70 GeV and a luminosity ≈1034 cm−2 s−1 would be uniquely suited to address several outstanding questions of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and the microscopic structure of hadrons and nuclei: (i) the three-dimensional structure of the nucleon in QCD (sea quark and gluon spatial distributions, orbital motion, polarization, correlations); (ii) the fundamental color fields in nuclei (nuclear parton densities, shadowing, coherence effects, color transparency); (iii) the conversion of color charge to hadrons (fragmentation, parton propagation through matter, in-medium jets). We briefly review the conceptual aspects of these questions and the measurements that would address them, emphasizing the qualitatively new information that could be obtained with the collider. Such a medium-energy EIC could be realized at Jefferson Lab after the 12 GeV Upgrade (MEIC), or at Brookhaven National Lab as the low-energy stage of eRHIC.

In this paper, we present the current design of the large booster ring for the Medium energy Electron-Ion Collider at Jefferson Lab. The booster ring takes 3 GeV protons or ions of equivalent rigidity from a pre-booster ring, and accelerates them to 20 GeV for protons or equivalent energy for light to heavy ions before sending them to the ion collider ring. The present design calls for a figure-8 shape of the ring for superior preservation of ion polarization. The ring is made of warm magnets and shares a tunnel with the two collider rings. Acceleration is achieved by warm RF systems. The linear optics has been designed with the transition energy above the highest beam energy in the ring so crossing of transition energy will be avoided. Preliminary beam dynamics studies including chromaticity compensation are presented in this paper.

Future nuclear physics facilities such as the proposed electron ion collider (MEIC) will need to achieve record high luminosities in order to maximize discovery potential. Among the necessary ingredients is the ability to generate, accumulate, accelerate, and store high current ion beams from protons to lead ions. One of the main components of this ion accelerator complex for MEIC chain is the accumulator that also doubles as a pre-booster, which takes 200 MeV protons from a superconducting linear accelerator, accumulates on the order of 1A beam, and boosts its energy to 3GeV, before extraction to the next accelerator in the chain, the large booster. This paper describes its design concepts, and summarizes some preliminary results, including linear optics, space charge dynamics, and spin polarization resonance analysis.

The nuclear physics program envisaged at the Medium-energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) currently being developed at the Jefferson Lab calls for collisions of 3-11 GeV/c longitudinally polarized electrons and 20-100 GeV/c, in equivalent proton momentum, longitudinally/ transversely polarized protons/ deuterons/ light ions. We present a scheme that provides the required ion polarization arrangement in the MEIC's ion collider ring.

Understanding of protons and neutrons, or "nucleons"â€"the building blocks of atomic nucleiâ€"has advanced dramatically, both theoretically and experimentally, in the past half century. A central goal of modern nuclear physics is to understand the structure of the proton and neutron directly from the dynamics of their quarks and gluons governed by the theory of their interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and how nuclear interactions between protons and neutrons emerge from these dynamics. With deeper understanding of the quark-gluon structure of matter, scientists are poised to reach a deeper picture of these building blocks, and atomic nuclei themselves, as collective many-body systems with new emergent behavior. The development of a U.S. domestic electron-ion collider (EIC) facility has the potential to answer questions that are central to completing an understanding of atoms and integral to the agenda of nuclear physics today. This study assesses the merits and significance of the science that could be addressed by an EIC, and its importance to nuclear physics in particular and to the physical sciences in general. It evaluates the significance of the science that would be enabled by the construction of an EIC, its benefits to U.S. leadership in nuclear physics, and the benefits to other fields of science of a U.S.-based EIC.

The Medium-energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) proposed by Jefferson Lab is designed to provide high polarization of both colliding beams. One of the unique features of JLab's MEIC is figure-8 shape of its rings. It allows preservation and control of polarization of all ion species including small-anomalous-magnetic-moment deuterons during their acceleration and storage. The figure-8 design conceptually expands the capability of obtaining polarized high-energy beams in comparison to conventional designs because of its property of having no preferred periodic spin direction. This allows one to control effectively the beam polarization by means of magnetic insertions with small field integrals. We present a complete scheme for preserving the ion polarization during all stages of acceleration and its control in the collider's experimental straights.