Small-x physics in eA at the LHeC: understanding the initial state of URHIC

The Large Hadron-electron Collider (LHeC) is an electron-proton/ion collider currently under design at CERN, which will collide 20 - 140 GeV e^± against the LHC beams, with a nominal luminosity of 10³³ cm^-2s^-1. The LHeC will give access to a completely new region of the Q²-x plane for protons and, more prominently, for nuclei. The study of electron-ion collisions offers the possibility to clarify many aspect of direct relevance for heavy-ion collisions. The initial stage of the collision is determined by the wave function of the incoming nuclei, to be explored at an electron-ion collider. There you can also investigate the mechanism of particle production on nuclear targets and the dynamics that lead to a system that behaves in a way that can be described by relativistic hydrodynamics. Finally, some of the techniques used to analyse the produced medium rely on changes in QCD radiation and hadronization that can be addressed in a simpler setup in electron-ion collisions