Accelerator physics requirements and challenges of RF based electron cooler for EIC injection energy

Cooling of hadrons in Electron Ion Collider (EIC) at the injection energy is critical to achieving EIC design parameters. A 13 MeV electron cooler fit for the task is presently under design. This cooler will use RF-accelerated electron bunches and will provide strong cooling of the hadrons having energy of 24 GeV/nucleon. The paper describes optimization of the cooling performance, taking into account space charge, IBS and other effects, and provides physics requirements for the cooler.