Excitation of Color Degrees of Freedom of Nuclear Matter and J/ψJ/\psi Suppression

In high energy nuclear collisions, the conventional Glauber model is commonly used to evaluate the contribution to $J/\psi$ suppression originating from the inelastic interaction with colorless bound nucleons. This requires an effective value for the $J/\psi$-nucleon absorption cross section which is larger than theoretically expected. On the other hand, multiple nucleon-nucleon collisions mediated by color exchange interactions, excite their color degrees of freedom. We investigate the importance of this effect and find that these excited states provide a larger cross section for $J/\psi$ absorption. We conclude that the related corrections are important to explain the effective value extrapolated from experiment.Comment: 21 pages Latex, 8 postscript figure

Charmonium Suppression in Heavy Ion Collisions by Prompt Gluons

In relativistic heavy ion collisions, also the bremsstrahlung of gluons in the fragmentation regions of the nuclei suppresses the produced charmonium states. In the energy range of the SPS, the radiation of semi-hard gluons occurs in the Bethe-Heitler regime and the density of gluons and therefore the suppression goes like $(AB)^{1\over3}$, where $A$ and $B$ are the nucleon numbers of the projectile and target nuclei. In contrast, the suppression via collisions with nucleons is proportional to $(A^{1\over3} + B^{1\over3})$. Parameter free perturbative QCD calculations are in a good agreement with the data on $J/\Psi$ and $\Psi'$ suppression in heavy ion collisions at SPS CERN. At higher energies (RHIC, LHC) the number of gluons which are able to break-up the charmonium substantially decreases and the additional suppression is expected to vanish.Comment: One figure is adde

Transverse Momentum Dependence of Anomalous J/\psi Suppression in Pb-Pb Collisions

The recently published data for $$ for $J/\psi$ production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 A GeV are analyzed. For low values of transverse energy $E_t$, where normal suppression dominates, $(E_t)$ scales with the path length of the gluons which fuse to make the $J/\psi$. In the $E_t$ domain of anomalous suppression $(E_t)$ is found to rise linearly with the relative amount of anomalous suppression. This empirical law is reproduced within an analytically solvable transport model which allows high $p_t$ $J/\psi$'s to escape anomalous suppression. Interpreted in this way, the data for $(E_t)$ lead to an estimate of $t_A \sim 4$ fm/$c$ for the duration of anomalous suppression.Comment: 10 pages and 3 figure

Multiple Scattering Theory for the Photoproduction of Vector Mesons off Nuclei

The integrated cross section for the incoherent photoproduction of vector mesons on nuclei $\gamma^* A \to VX$, $X\not=A$, is calculated within Glauber theory and as a function of the photon energy. The inverse of the longitudinal momentum transfer is called coherence length $l_c$ and depends on the virtuality and the energy of the photon. Nuclear transmission factors strongly depend on $l_c/R_A$ ($R_A$ is the nuclear radius) and this effect may interfere with the search for color transparency effects.Comment: 9 pages, 1 Postscript figur

Coherence Phenomena in Charmonium Production off Nuclei at the Energies of RHIC and LHC

In the energy range of RHIC and LHC the mechanisms of nuclear suppression of charmonia are expected to be strikingly different from what is known for the energy of the SPS. One cannot think any more of charmonium produced on a bound nucleon which then attenuates as it passes through the rest of the nucleus. The coherence length of charmonium production substantially exceeds the nuclear radius in the new energy range. Therefore the production amplitudes on different nucleons, rather than the cross sections, add up and interfere, i.e. shadowing is at work. So far no theoretical tool has been available to calculate nuclear effects for charmonium production in this energy regime. We develop a light-cone Green function formalism which incorporates the effects of the coherence of the production amplitudes and of charmonium wave function formation, and is the central result of this paper. We found a substantial deviation from QCD factorization, namely, gluon shadowing is much stronger for charmonium production than it is in DIS. We predict for nuclear effects $x_2$ scaling which is violated at lower energies by initial state energy loss which must be also included in order to compare with available data. In this paper only the indirect J/Psi originating from decay of P-wave charmonia are considered. The calculated x_F-dependence of J/Psi nuclear suppression is in a good accord with data. We predict a dramatic variation of nuclear suppression with x_F in pA and a peculiar peak at x_F=0 in AA collisions at RHIC.Comment: 51 pages including 12 figures. Two references and comments are added at the en

Time Structure of Anomalous J/psi and psi' suppression in nuclear collisions

The data for the mean squared transverse momentum P_t as function of transverse energy E_t of J/Psi and Psi' produced in Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN-SPS are analyzed and it is claimed that they contain information about the time structure of anomalous suppression. A transport equation which describes transverse motion of J/Psi and Psi' in the absorptive medium is proposed and solved for a QGP and a comover scenario of suppression. While the comover approach accounts for the data fairly well without adjusting any parameter, the fit to the data within the QGP scenario requires to assume anomalous suppression to become effective rather late, 3-4 fm/c after the nuclear overlap.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Critical Scattering at the Chiral Phase Transition and low-p_t enhancement of mesons in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions

The enhancement of pions and kaons observed at small transverse momenta in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions may at least partly reflect critical scattering expected to occur in the neighborhood of a second order phase transition. Kinetic equations in the relaxation time approximation are proposed for the time evolution of the quark distribution function into that of the pions. Relaxation times for thermalization and hadronization processes are functions of momenta and approach zero in the limit p->0, a consequence of criticality at the phase transition. Data can be reproduced for suitably chosen parameters.Comment: 9 pages, two postscript figure

Scanning the Quark-Gluon Plasma with Charmonium

We suggest the variation of charmonium suppression with Feynman x_F in heavy ion collisions as a novel and sensitive probe for the properties of the matter created in such reactions. In contrast to the proton-nucleus case where nuclear suppression is weakest at small x_F, final state interactions with the comoving matter create a minimum at x_F=0, which is especially deep and narrow if a quark-gluon plasma is formed. While a particularly strong effect is predicted at SPS, at the higher RHIC energy it overlaps with the expected sharp variation with x_F of nuclear effects and needs comparison with proton-nucleus data. If thermal enhancement of J/\Psi production takes over at the energies of RHIC and LHC, it will form an easily identified peak, rather than dip in x_F dependence. We predict a steep dependence on centrality and suggest that this new probe is complementary to the dependence on transverse energy, and is more sensitive to a scenario of final state interactions.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures. Stylistic and clarifying corrections are mad

Inelastic J/ΨJ/\Psi Photoproduction off Nuclei: Gluon Enhancement or Double Color Exchange?

The nuclear enhancement observed in inelastic photoproduction of $J/\Psi$ should not be interpreted as evidence for an increased gluon density in nuclei. The nuclear suppression of the production rate due to initial and final state interactions is calculated and a novel two-step color exchange process is proposed, which is able to explain the data.Comment: Latex file, 23 pages including 5 Postscript figure