Moving High-Energy Nuclear Physics Forward at the Large Hadron Collider

At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), collisions of Pb ions achieve an extremely high energy density such that a thermalized medium of quarks and gluons, a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), is produced. In addition p+Pb collisions have shed much light on nuclear properties of Pb.

Recently interest has grown in collisions in which the accelerated ion beams are considered as a beam of quasi-real photons due to the EM fields of the ion beams. In this way, photo-nuclear collisions may be studied for an even cleaner probe of the Pb than obtainable in p+Pb collisions. Robust identification of such collisions as well as diffractive nuclear collisions require detector acceptance at forward rapidity and this in turn requires upgrading the detector capabilities. A key requirement of a forward rapidity detector upgrade is the ability to be extremely radiation hard.

Results from the heavy-ion program at the LHC will be briefly reviewed, with a highlighting of measurements related to nuclear structure, and prospects for a radiation hard detector will be discussed.