https://phys.org/news/2018-07-domestic-electron-ion-collider-scientific.html

The report says a new EIC accelerator facility would have capabilities beyond all previous electron scattering machines in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. High energies and luminosities—the measure of the rate at which particle collisions occur—are required to achieve the fine resolution needed, and to reach such intensities and energy levels requires a collider where beams of electrons smash into beams of protons or heavier ions. Comparing all existing and proposed accelerator facilities around the world, the committee concluded that an EIC with high energy and luminosity, and highly polarized electron and ion beams, would be unique and in a position to greatly further our understanding of visible matter.

"An EIC would be the most sophisticated and challenging accelerator currently proposed for construction in the U.S. and would significantly advance accelerator science, and more specifically collider science and technologies, here and around the world," said committee co-chair Gordon Baym, Center for Advanced Study Professor Emeritus, George and Ann Fisher Distinguished Professor of Engineering Emeritus, and Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The realization of an EIC is absolutely crucial to maintaining the health of the field of nuclear physics in the U.S. and would open up new areas of scientific investigation."