The LHCspin project: A polarized target experiment at LHC

A polarized target, operated in combination with the high-energy, high-intensity LHC beams and a highly performing LHC particle detector, has the potential to open new physics frontiers and to deepen our understanding of the intricacies of the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime of QCD. Specifically, the LHCspin project aims to perform spin physics studies in high-energy polarized fixed-target collisions using the LHCb detector. Being designed and optimized for the detection of heavy hadrons, the LHCb spectrometer, in combination with the LHCspin setup, will provide a complementary access to the nucleon structure, e.g., by studying inclusive production of c- and b-hadrons, which represent an ideal tool to access the essentially unexplored spin-dependent gluon TMDs. Furthermore, fixedtarget collisions with 7 TeV proton beams, corresponding to center-of-mass energies ranging from 115 GeV in pp interactions to 72 GeV per nucleon in collisions with ion beams, will allow to cover a wide backward rapidity region, corresponding to the poorly explored high x-Bjorken and high x-Feynman regimes. The status of the LHCspin project is presented along with a selection of physics opportunities.