Peering Into Hadronic Matter: The Electron-Ion Collider

Abstract

A unique new facility, capable of colliding beams of electrons with a wide range of nuclei as well as polarized protons and light ions, has been proposed to study the role of gluons in matter and perform precision mapping of the structure of nucleons and nuclei. The physics prospects of the proposed Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) are discussed.