Artigo Acesso aberto

A quantitative analysis of charmonium suppression in nuclear collisions

1997; Springer Nature; Volume: 74; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/s002880050392

ISSN

1431-5858

Autores

Dmitri E. Kharzeev, C. Lourenço, M. Nardi, H. Satz,

Tópico(s)

Nuclear reactor physics and engineering

Resumo

Data from J/psi and psi' production in p-A collisions are used to determine the cross section for absorption of pre-resonance charmonium in nuclear matter. The J/psi suppression in O-Cu, O-U and S-U collisions is fully reproduced by the corresponding nuclear absorption, while Pb-Pb collisions show an additional suppression increasing with centrality. We study the onset of this change in terms of hadronic comover interactions and conclude that so far no conventional hadronic description can consistently account for all data. Deconfinement, starting at a critical point determined by central S-U collisions, is in accord with the observed suppression pattern.

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