Charm production in antiproton–nucleus collisions at the [formula omitted] and the [formula omitted] thresholds

Abstract

We discuss the production of charmonium states in antiproton–nucleus collisions at the ψ′ threshold. It is explained that measurements in p¯A collisions will allow to get new information about the strengths of the inelastic J/ψN and ψ′N interaction, on the production of Λc and D¯ in charmonium–nucleon interactions and for the first time about the nondiagonal transitions ψ′N→J/ψN. The inelastic J/ψ-nucleon cross section is extracted from the comparison of hadron–nucleus collisions with hadron–nucleon collisions. We extract the total J/ψ-nucleon cross section from photon–nucleon collisions by accounting for the color transparency phenomenon within the frame of the GVDM (generalized vector meson dominance model). We evaluate within the GVDM the inelastic ψ′-nucleon cross section as well as the cross section for the nondiagonal transitions. Predictions for the ratio of J/ψ to ψ′ yields in antiproton–nucleus scatterings close to the threshold of ψ′ production for different nuclear targets are presented.