Physics with ions at the Future Circular Collider

• Published in: Nuclear physics. A Vol. 967; pp. 888 - 891
• Main Authors: d'Enterria, David, Apolinario, L., Armesto, N., Dainese, A., Jowett, J., Lansberg, J.P., Masciocchi, S., Milhano, G., Roland, C., Salgado, C.A., Schaumann, M., van Leeuwen, M., Wiedemann, U.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-11-2017
• Subjects: charm; FCC; Higgs boson; low-x QCD; nuclear collisions; photon-photon collisions; quarkonia; top quark; nuclear collisions; top quark; Higgs boson; charm; quarkonia; FCC; photon-photon collisions; low-x QCD
• ISSN: 0375-9474
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2017.06.029

The unique physics opportunities accessible with nuclear collisions at the CERN Future Circular Collider (FCC) are summarized. Lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-lead (pPb) collisions at sNN=39 and 63 TeV respectively with Lint=33nb−1 and 8 pb−1 monthly integrated luminosities, will provide unprecedented experimental conditions to study quark-gluon matter at temperatures O(1 GeV). The following topics are succinctly discussed: (i) charm-quark densities thrice larger than at the LHC, leading to direct heavy-quark impact in the bulk QGP properties, (ii) quarkonia, including ϒ(1S), melting at temperatures up to five times above the QCD critical temperature, (iii) access to initial-state nuclear parton distributions (nPDF) at fractional momenta as low as x≈10−7, (iv) availability of about 5⋅105 top-quark pairs per run to study the high-x gluon nPDF and the energy loss properties of boosted colour-antennas, (v) study of possible Higgs boson suppression in the QGP, and (vi) high-luminosity γγ (ultraperipheral) collisions at c.m. energies up to 1 TeV.