The future of particle accelerators is here

A new accelerator and detector will serve as a kind of camera, taking 3D images and movies of electrons colliding with polarized protons and ions. Like a CT scanner for atoms, the EIC will let scientists see how force-carrying gluon particles hold together quarks, the internal components of protons and neutrons. It will also offer insights into the spin of fundamental particles. Cutting-edge accelerators could collide with both energy consumption and our assumptions about the nature of matter.