Physics with high-luminosity proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC

The physics case for the operation of high-luminosity proton-nucleus (pA) collisions at the CERN LHC is reviewed. The collection of $\mathcal{O}$(1–10 pb⁻¹) of proton-lead (pPb) collisions at the LHC will provide unique physics opportunities in a broad range of topics including proton and nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs and nPDFs), generalised parton distributions (GPDs), transverse momentum dependent PDFs (TMDs), low-x quantum chromodynamics and parton saturation, hadron spectroscopy, baseline studies for quark-gluon plasma and parton collectivity, double and triple parton scatterings, photon–photon collisions, and physics beyond the Standard Model; which are not otherwise as clearly accessible by exploiting data from any other colliding system at the LHC. This report summarises the accelerator aspects of high-luminosity pA operation at the LHC, as well as each of the physics topics outlined above, including the relevant experimental measurements that motivate much larger pA datasets than collected to date.. Authors: Lynch, K. [Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay (France); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Orsay (France). Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab); University College Dublin (Ireland)]; Schenke, Bjoern [Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)] (ORCID:0000000179081322); Stefaniak, M. [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)] (ORCID:0000000258201054). DOE Contract: FG02-93ER40771; SC0012704. Subjects: 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; FOS: Physical sciences; LHC; QCD; Quantum Physics (quant-ph); proton-nucleus collisions; proton/nuclear distribution functions; quark-gluon plasma; spectroscopy