Abstract
The Electron-ion collider (EIC) is a collider under development at BrookhavenNational Laboratory, expected to be operational in 2033. An electron-ion collision
can produce a range of particles including vector mesons. The eSTARlight Monte
Carlo event generator simulates these collisions and calculates the cross sections of
vector meson production reactions. This thesis describes the upgrades I made to
eSTARlight for better simulation of electron-ion collisions. Since the cross-section
of reactions is sensitive to the density models used to define the detailed shape of
nuclei, I implemented updated nuclear density distribution models for more accurate
predictions. Additionally, I added the excited ρ(1450) meson production and decay
channel in eSTARlight based on calculations by Lomnitz and Klein [4]. I then used
this channel in eSTARlight to estimate the number of excited rho mesons that would
hit the planned ePIC detector in anticipated running at the EIC. The ePIC detector
acceptance was calculated and also the expected number of excited rho mesons detected. Finally, I implemented updated parametrizations for the energy dependence
of the production cross section [32] to get more accurate predictions of the excited
rho meson production cross section.