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Precision QCD with the Electron-Ion Collider

C. Alexandrou, M. Arratia, E. C. Aschenauer, A. Avkhadiev, P. V. Balachandran, V. Bertone, I. Borsa, M. Cerutti, X. Chu, W. Cosyn, D. de Florian, A. Dumitru, M. Engelhardt, R. Fatemi, S. Forte, Y. Fu, L. Gamberg, H. Gao, T. Gehrmann, A. Gehrmann-De Ridder, Y. Go, Y. Guo, Y. Hatta, J. Haug, T. J. Hobbs, T. Horn, E. Iancu, J. Jalilian-Marian, Z. B. Kang, M. Klasen, Y. V. Kovchegov, B. Kriesten, J. G. Lajoie, W. Li, X. Li, Y. Li, H. -W. Lin, M. X. Liu, S. Liuti, C. Marquet, P. Meinzinger, W. Melnitchouk, S. Moch, P. Nadel-Turonski, P. Nadolsky, M. Neubert, A. NieMiera, E. R. Nocera, C. Pecar, J. Penttala, C. Pisano, A. Prokudin, J. -W. Qiu, F. Ringer, F. Salazar, R. Sassot, J. Schoenleber, R. Seidl, V. Skokov, A. M. Staśto, R. Sufian, S. Tiwari, M. Ubiali, R. Venugopalan, W. Vogelsang, F. Wunder, F. Yuan, Y. Zhao, W. Zhao

Abstract

This document summarizes the discussions at the program "Precision QCD with the Electron Ion Collider", held from May to June 2025 at the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) at the University of Washington. The program was co-sponsored by the INT and by the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science (CFNS, Stony Brook University). Over its five-week duration it brought together about 70 theorists, experimentalists and computer scientists all interested in the physics program at the future Electron Ion Collider in preparation at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Key topics at the program were: higher-order perturbative-QCD calculations and techniques; nuclear structure and tomography; comparisons of phenomenological and lattice determinations of parton distribution functions; identification of signature observables for saturated gluons; assessment of the importance of AI techniques for EIC studies and detector development.

Precision QCD with the Electron-Ion Collider

Abstract

This document summarizes the discussions at the program "Precision QCD with the Electron Ion Collider", held from May to June 2025 at the Institute for Nuclear Theory (INT) at the University of Washington. The program was co-sponsored by the INT and by the Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science (CFNS, Stony Brook University). Over its five-week duration it brought together about 70 theorists, experimentalists and computer scientists all interested in the physics program at the future Electron Ion Collider in preparation at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Key topics at the program were: higher-order perturbative-QCD calculations and techniques; nuclear structure and tomography; comparisons of phenomenological and lattice determinations of parton distribution functions; identification of signature observables for saturated gluons; assessment of the importance of AI techniques for EIC studies and detector development.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 78 sections, 37 equations, 35 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Precision theory for hard scattering at the EIC, factorization and resummation
  2. Higher-order calculations for the EIC
  3. Resummation and improved threshold approximations
  4. The strong coupling constant
  5. Global averages of $\alpha_s$.
  6. Current status and future developments at the EIC.
  7. Deep-inelastic scattering.
  8. Determinations jointly with PDFs.
  9. Determinations on the lattice.
  10. Future prospects and the EIC.
  11. Pitfalls and subtleties.
  12. Correlation of $\alpha_s$ and PDFs.
  13. The treatment of multiplicative uncertainties.
  14. Positivity.
  15. The photon PDF.
  16. ...and 63 more sections

Figures (35)

  • Figure 1: Left: Approximate NLO,NNLO $K$-factors for SIDIS of Abele:2021nyo for typical COMPASS kinematics. Right: Full NNLO results of Ref. Bonino:2024qbh.
  • Figure 2: The global determination of the value of the strong coupling $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ published by the PDG, as a function of time. Bands correspond to one-sigma uncertainties.
  • Figure 3: Summary of the determinations of $\alpha_s$: taken from Ref. ParticleDataGroup:2024cfk.
  • Figure 4: A typical likelihood profile in $\alpha_s$-PDF space. The multidimensional PDF space is schematically represented as a single parameter $\hat{\theta}$; $\sigma_\alpha$ and $\sigma_\theta$ are the one-sigma uncertainties on the PDF and $\alpha_s$ respectively, while $\sigma_{\rm old}$ denotes the value of the $\alpha_s$ uncertainty that is obtained by not determining simultaneously $\alpha_s$ and the PDFs. (From Ref. Ball:2018iqk)
  • Figure 5: Schematic representation of likelihood profiles in $\alpha_s$-PDF space. The multidimensional PDF space is schematically represented as a single parameter $b$. The ellipse is the likelihood profile for a joint PDF-$\alpha_s$ determination, and the dot-dashed line is the maximum-likelihood curve for an experiment (approximated by a straight line in a small enough neighborhood) that does not fully determine the PDF (see text). From Ref. Forte:2020pyp
  • ...and 30 more figures