EIC Far Forward Detector Design

The future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) in the US starting in the 2030s is poised to be the machine in high-energy nuclear physics to answer longstanding question in hadronic physics. It will be capable of operating at luminosities up to 10³⁴ cm^-2s^-1, and be the only machine able to collide polarized electron and polarized light / nuclear beams up to the highest A. A major component of the EIC physics program is the detection of diffractive final states which can produce particles very close to the beam (θ < 35 mrad) – the so-called “far-forward” region of the EIC reference detector. Measurement of these diffractive final states requires use of multiple detector sub-systems integrated into the hadron beamline, which provides a challenge for integration with the accelerator magnets and vacuum system. Additionally, the exclusive and diffractive final states measured in the far-forward region can also leverage different machine optics configurations, which provide a tradeoff between detector acceptance and luminosity, and allow for optimal conditions for tagging final state particles in different regions of the far-forward phase space. In this talk, I will discuss these far-forward detector subsystems in detail, as well as challenges faced on the path to realizing this important set of diffractive EIC measurements.