Studies of Meson Structure at the EIC*

The space and momentum distribution of hadronic constituents (gluons, sea quarks) inside the nucleon is of utmost importance in studies of QCD. Deeper considerations of the lightest mesons (pions, kaons) could provide insights into many questions that plague modern QCD studies. The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) will provide access to a large kinematic range in the longitudinal momentum fraction, x, and the four-momentum transfer, Q². These would allow the extraction of structure functions and the pion and kaon form factors which would allow one to probe the differences of gluon content in pions, kaons, and nucleons. While the EIC is under development, Monte Carlo simulations are a quick and effective approach for feasibility studies of the meson structure measurements in the high x region. The EIC will have the capacity to host two interaction regions, each with a corresponding detector. Meson structure function studies are the main driver for far-forward region design. Optimization of the first beamline was done for the EIC YR while the second beamline is currently undergoing a more detailed design. I will be discussing the optimization of these beamlines and contributions to the PDF global fitting community.