Speaker
Description
The Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) is the proposal to deliver electron-proton/nucleus collisions at CERN using the LHC beams and a 50 GeV electron beam from an Energy Recovery Linac. While initially foreseen [1] for concurrent electron-hadron and hadron-hadron operation, a standalone electron-hadron operation phase has been proposed [2] in view of the current LHC schedule. Thus, the LHeC becomes a bridge from the HL-LHC to the next flagship at CERN, and one of the possible projects in the 2026 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics [3], were the FCC-ee as plan A not feasible.
In this talk we review the QCD studies at the LHeC. The impact of DIS on the extraction of parton densities of proton and nuclei and on the determination of $\alpha_s$ is analysed. The implications for such extraction on EW parameters and Higgs couplings at the HL-LHC, and on the extension of high-mass searches, is discussed. The combination with EIC data is also shown. Finally, the possibilities for unraveling the existence of a new non-linear regime of QCD are discussed.
[1] P. Agostini et al. (LHeC/FCC-he Study Group), J. Phys. G 48, 110501 (2021), arXiv:2007.14491 [hep-ex].
[2] F. Ahmadova et al., e-Print: 2503.17727 [hep-ex].
[3] The European Strategy for Particle Physics: 2026 Update - Recommendations by the European Strategy Group, https://cds.cern.ch/record/2950671/files/CERN-ESU-2025-002.pdf?version=1.
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