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The inaugural AI4EIC Hackathon unfolded as a high-point satellite event during the second AI4EIC Workshop at William & Mary. The workshop itself boasted over two hundred participants in a hybrid format and delved into the myriad applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) for the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). This workshop aimed to catalyze advancements in AI/ML with applications ranging from advancements in accelerator and detector technologies—highlighted by the ongoing work on the ePIC detector and potential development of a second detector for the EIC—to data analytics, reconstruction, and particle identification, as well as the synergies between theoretical and experimental research. Complementing the technical agenda was an enriched educational outreach program that featured tutorials from leading AI/ML experts representing academia, national laboratories, and industry. The hackathon, held on the final day, showcased international participation with ten teams from around the globe. Each team, comprising up to four members, focused on the dual-radiator Ring Imaging Cherenkov (dRICH) detector, an integral part of the particle identification (PID) system in ePIC. The data for the hackathon were generated using the ePIC software suite. While the hackathon presented questions of increasing complexity, its challenges were designed with deliberate simplifications to serve as a preliminary step toward the integration of machine learning and deep learning techniques in PID with the dRICH detector. This article encapsulates the key findings and insights gained from this unique experience.

We present the state of the art of the n_TOF Collaboration Working Group activity dedicated to study how to solve the puzzle about the existence of the so called new particle X17, spotted for the first time few years ago by a team at ATOMKI in Hungary and since then never confirmed by other independent experimental collaborations but also never refuted. An “ad hoc” detection setup is under realization for this goal, in order to reach an angular resolution of the two emerging trajectories from the X17 decay and an energy resolution for the invariant mass reconstruction enough to cast light in a definitive way about this puzzle. To design the present detection setup we work in close contact with the Pisa Nuclear Theory team, that has deeply studied the implication of X17 existence and extracted by the ATOMKI results its eventual nature, kinematics and general properties.

The gas electron multiplier technology has been proven to tolerate rat e larger than 50 MHz/cm2 without noticeable aging and to provide sub resolution on working chambers up to 45 cm x 45 cm. A new gas electron multiplier-based tracker is under development for the Hall A upgrade at Jefferson Lab. The chambers of the tracker have been designed in a modular way: each chamber consists of 3 adjacent gas electron multiplier modules, with an active area of 40 cm x 50 cm each. We optimized the gas flow inside the gas electron multiplier module volume, using the COMSOL physics simulator framework; the COMSOL-based analysis includes the design of the inlet and outlet pipes and the maximization of the uniformity of the gas flow. We have defined the procedures for the assembling of the gas electron multiplier modules and designed a mechanical system (TENDIGEM) that will be used to stretch the GEM foils at the proper tension (few kg/cm); the TENDIGEM is based on the original design developed at LNF.

A new Large-Acceptance Forward Angle Spectrometer (Super BigBite) is under development at JLab/Hall A to optimally exploit the exciting opportunities offered by the 12 GeV upgrade of the electron beam. The tracking of this new apparatus is based on the gas electron multiplier technology, which has been chosen to optimize cost/performance, position resolution and meet the high hits rate (>1 MHz/cm2). The first gas electron multiplier detector prototypes were designed, built and tested at the DESY test beam facility in Hamburg, by using an electron beam with energy from 2.0 to 6.0 GeV. In particular, two gas electron multiplier chambers (10 x 10 cm2 and 40 x 50 cm2, respectively) were equipped with a new implementation of the APV25 readout chip. Measurements were performed at different impact points and angles between the electron beam and the plane of the gas electron multiplier chambers. In this report we present the technical characteristics of the detector and comment on the presently achieved performance.

We present an improved description of the semi-inclusive deep inelastic electron scattering off polarized 3He, providing information on the neutron single spin asymmetries. The analysis at finite momentum transfers in a Poincaré covariant framework is outlined and a quantitative estimate of the nuclear effects is presented.

Since the R. Hofstadter pioneering experiments in the '50s, the measurements of the electromagnetic space-like nucleon form factors (FF's) have been a precious source of information for the understanding of the internal structure of the nucleons. In the last 15 years, the polarization transfer experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) have undermined our view of the mechanism of the electron scattering and renewed critical interest in the FF measurements. In the coming years, JLab, with its upgraded 12 GeV polarized, high intensity, electron beam combined to new targets and readout equipments, will offer unprecedented opportunities to extend the current proton and neutron FF's measurements to higher momentum transfer Q2 and to improve statistical and uncertainties at lower Q2, where the nucleon size can be accurately investigated. The measurements at high Q2 will provide also new insights on the elusive quark orbital angular momenta, will contribute to constraint two of the nucleon Generalized Parton Distributions that are expected to describe more consistently the nucleon structure, and in general will test the validity of quite a few fundamental nucleon models in a region of transition between perturbative and non perturbative regimes. A selection of the relevant properties of the FF's, and the main results of JLab are shortly reviewed; the new proposed and approved experiments on FF's at JLab are presented addressing some key details, the expected experimental achievements and the new equipment designed for them.