The ePIC Detector: Experimental Program

The ePIC detector is designed to be a general-purpose detector for the EIC's diverse physics program. To meet the demands of several different and sometimes competing experimental measurements, it is necessary to study the relevant physical processes in detail. Central issues for the physics program include the search for 3D internal structures to understand the origin of nucleon mass and spin, and the discovery of gluon saturation inside nuclei and the study of its emergent properties. To accommodate a very diverse physics program, in addition to inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering processes, we also measure deep virtual Compton scattering and meson production processes as exclusive processes for electron + proton collisions and diffraction processes for electron + heavy ion collisions. This talk will present the physics program of the ePIC experiment and discuss challenges to the detector design to achieve the program.