Abstract
Quarkonium production in proton-nucleus collisions is a powerful tool to disentangle cold nuclear matter effects. A model based on coherent energy loss is able to explain the available quarkonium suppression data in a broad range of rapidities, from fixed-target to collider energies, suggesting coherent energy loss in cold nuclear matter to be the dominant effect in quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions. This could be further tested in a high-energy fixed-target experiment using a proton or nucleus beam. The nuclear modification factors ofJ/ψandΥas a function of rapidity are computed in p-A collisions ats=114.6 GeV, and in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions ats=72 GeV. These center-of-mass energies correspond to the collision on fixed-target nuclei of 7 TeV protons and 2.76 TeV (per nucleon) lead nuclei available at the LHC.
Highlights
Understanding the physical origin of quarkonium (J/ψ, Υ) suppression in proton-nucleus (p-A) collisions has been a challenge for the past thirty years
We often make the distinction between “fixed-target” and “collider” experiments when it comes to quarkonium production
The consequences of coherent energy loss are quarkonium suppression at large positive values of the rapidity and at all center-of-mass energies of the p-A collision. Each of these cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects is plausible, it does not necessarily mean that all play a role in the nuclear dependence of quarkonium production; in particular, the strength of each CNM effect is usually unknown a priori
Summary
Understanding the physical origin of quarkonium (J/ψ, Υ) suppression in proton-nucleus (p-A) collisions has been a challenge for the past thirty years. The consequences of coherent energy loss are quarkonium suppression (resp., enhancement) at large positive (resp., large negative) values of the rapidity and at all center-of-mass energies of the p-A collision Each of these CNM effects is plausible, it does not necessarily mean that all play a role in the nuclear dependence of quarkonium production; in particular, the strength of each CNM effect is usually unknown a priori. (iv) an original prediction of coherent energy loss is a different magnitude of quarkonium suppression in p-A and π-A collisions (in contrast with nuclear absorption effects, which should be independent of the projectile hadron), in agreement with the measurements of NA3. We recall the main ingredients of our approach
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