J/ψ suppression by quark-gluon plasma formation

Abstract

If high energy heavy ion collisions lead to the formation of a hot quark-gluon plasma, then colour screening prevents cc binding in the deconfined interior of the interaction region. To study this effect, the temperature dependence of the screening radius, as obtained from lattice QCD, is compared with the J/ψ radius calculated in charmomium models. The feasibility to detect this effect clearly in the dilepton mass spectrum is examined. It is concluded that J/ψ suppression in nuclear collisions should provide an unambiguous signature of quark-gluon plasma formation.