Charmonium disintegration by field ionization

Abstract

Charmonium bound states immersed in a coherent chromo-electric field are easily ripped apart for field strengths comparable to the QCD string tension. Estimates based on flux tube models suggest that field strengths of such magnitude may be achieved in heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies. Our results suggest that charmonium suppression would not discriminate between a coherent and a thermalized post collision state in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.