Charmonium-state production in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

An overview of existing experimental data on the production of charmonium states (J/ψ and ψ′) at the superproton synchrotron (SPS, CERN) and the relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC, Brookhaven National Laboratory, United States) is given. The production of J/ψ mesons shows an anomalous suppression discovered by the NA50 Collaboration (CERN) in collisions of lead nuclei at an energy of 158 GeV per nucleon and confirmed in the NA60 experiment (CERN) in collisions of indium nuclei at the same energy. The suppression of J/ψ production depends on interaction centrality and becomes anomalous at about 122 participant nucleons in PbPb collisions and at about 86 participant nucleons in InIn collisions. The experimental data in question are compared with the predictions of existing theoretical models. None of the models is able to simultaneously describe data on PbPb and InIn collisions. Data obtained in the PHENIX experiment at RHIC from measurements of J/ψ production in AuAu and CuCu collisions at an energy of 200 GeV (in the nucleon-nucleon c.m. frame) indicate that the suppression of J/ψ production at such energies approximately corresponds to the suppression of J/ψ production in PbPb collisions at SPS. Theoretical models that describe SPS data on PbPb collisions predict a stronger suppression of J/ψ production. Models that take into account J/ψ-meson regeneration better describe experimental data obtained at RHIC. Measurement of cross sections for charmonium and bottomonium production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC, CERN) would make it possible to study the properties of matter and to explore the mechanism of quarkonium production at ultrahigh energy densities and temperature and high transverse momenta, as well as to investigate the effect of the regeneration and suppression of quarkonium production as the energy increases.