The Spin Physics Detector (SPD) at the Nuclotron based Ion Collider fAcility
(NICA) is a multi-purpose experiment designed to study nucleon spin structure
in the three dimensions. With capabilities to collide polarized protons and
deuterons with center of mass energy up to 27 GeV and luminosity up to 1032cm−2 s−1 for protons (an order of magnitude less for deuterons),
the experiment will allow measurements of cross-sections and spin asymmetries
of hadronic processes sensitive to the unpolarized and various polarized
(helicity, Sivers, Boer-Mulders) gluon distributions inside the nucleons.
Results from the SPD will be complementary to the present high energy spin
experiments at the RHIC facility or future experiments like the EIC (at BNL)
and AFTER (at LHC). SPD will provide data in moderate and large Bjorken-x for
much improved global analyses of spin structures of the basic building blocks
of Nature. With polarized deuteron collisions, SPD will be the unique
laboratory for probing tensor polarized gluon distributions. In addition, there
are also possibilities of colliding other light nuclei like Carbon at reduced
collision energy and luminosity at the first stage of the experiment.Comment: Accepted for publication in MDPI Physics special issue `From Heavy
Ions to Astroparticle Physics