Speaker
Description
The space and momentum distribution of hadronic constituents (gluons, sea quarks) inside the nucleon is of utmost importance in studies of QCD. Deeper considerations of the lightest mesons (pions, kaons) could provide insights into many questions that plague modern QCD studies. Pions and Kaons are connected to the Goldstone modes of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, making them critical components in understanding the origin of hadronic mass. The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will provide access to a large kinematic range in the longitudinal momentum fraction, x, and the four-momentum transfer, Q2 . These would allow the extraction of structure functions and the pion and kaon form factors. Such measurements would allow one to probe the differences of gluon content in pions, kaons, and nucleons. The difference in gluon content may be the origin of the differences in these hadron masses. While the EIC is under development, Monte Carlo simulations are a quick and effective approach for feasibility studies of measurements in a particular region of interest to theoretical calculations. Specifically, simulations of the pion and kaon structure functions will provide feedback on the feasibility of studying the different gluon content and hadronic structure at large values of x. The EIC will have the capacity to host two interaction regions, each with a corresponding detector. It is expected that each of these two detectors would be represented by a Collaboration. Meson structure function studies are the main driver for far-forward region design. During the EIC YR, optimization of the first beamline was done. The second beamline is only now undergoing a more detailed design and may be even better suited for meson structure studies - in particular, the kaon final state. I will be discussing the optimization of these beamlines and contributions to the PDF global fitting community.
