Mass modification of D-meson in hot hadronic matter

We evaluate the in-medium $D$ and $\bar D$-meson masses in hot hadronic matter induced by interactions with the light hadron sector described in a chiral SU(3) model. The effective Lagrangian approach is generalized to SU(4) to include charmed mesons. We find that the D-mass drops substantially at finite temperatures and densities, which open the channels of the decay of the charmonium states ($\Psi^\prime$, $\chi_c$, $J/\Psi$) to $D \bar D$ pairs in the thermal medium. The effects of vacuum polarisations from the baryon sector on the medium modification of the $D$-meson mass relative to those obtained in the mean field approximation are investigated. The results of the present work are compared to calculations based on the QCD sum-rule approach, the quark-meson coupling model, chiral perturbation theory, as well as to studies of quarkonium dissociation using heavy quark potential from lattice QCD.Comment: 18 pages including 7 figures, minor revision of the text, figure styles modified, to appear in Phys. Rev.

A model-independent analysis of the dependence of the anomalous J/psi suppression on the number of participant nucleons

A recently published experimental dependence of the J/psi to Drell-Yan ratio on the measured, by a zero degree calorimeter, forward energy E_ZDC in Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS is analyzed. Using a model-independent approach it is shown that the data are at variance with an earlier published experimental dependence of the same quantity on the transverse energy of neutral hadrons E_T. The discrepancy is related to a moderate centrality region: 100 < N_p < 200 (N_p is the number of participant nucleons) and is peculiar only to the data obtained within the `minimum bias' analysis (using the `theoretical Drell-Yan'). This could result from systematic experimental errors in the minimum bias sample. A possible source of the errors is discussed.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 3 PS-figures. V2: Misprints are correcte

Geometric Parameterization of J/ΨJ/\Psi Absorption in Heavy Ion Collisions

We calculate the survival probability of $J/\Psi$ particles in various colliding systems using a Glauber model. An analysis of recent data has reported a $J/\Psi$-nucleon breakup cross section of 6.2$\pm$0.7 mb derived from an exponential fit to the ratio of $J/\Psi$ to Drell-Yan yields as a function of a simple, linearly-averaged mean path length through the nuclear medium. Our calculations indicate that, due to the nature of the calculation, this approach yields an apparent breakup cross section which is systematically lower than the actual value.Comment: LaTex, 7 pages, 2 figure

ALICE results on heavy-ion physics at the LHC

ALICE is a multipurpose detector for high-energy nucleus-nucleus physics at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In November 2010, ALICE took its first Pb-Pb data at the center-of-mass energy of 2.76TeV per nucleon pair; reference data in proton-proton collisions at the same energy were collected in 2011. This paper gives an overview of the main physics results obtained with these data. In particular, I will present results on identified charged and strange particle transverse momentum spectra, on anisotropic flow of charged particles, on open heavy flavour and quarkonia production in Pb-Pb collisions, compared to pp collisions. These first Pb-Pb results from ALICE at LHC are broadly consistent with expectations based on lower energy RHIC and SPS data. They indicate that matter created in these collisions, while initially much larger and hotter, still behaves like a very strongly interacting, almost perfect liquid. A brief outlook on the expected results from the second, higher statistics Pb-Pb run of Fall 2011 will be given as well

Charmonium suppression at RHIC and SPS: a hadronic baseline

A kinetic equation approach is applied to model anomalous J/psi suppression at RHIC and SPS by absorption in a hadron resonance gas which successfully describes statistical hadron production in both experiments. The puzzling rapidity dependence of the PHENIX data is reproduced as a geometric effect due to a longer absorption path for J/psi production at forward rapidity.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, final version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

J/psi production in a gluon plasma produced in Au-Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Centrality dependence of J/psi production in Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV nucleon-nucleon center of mass energy is studied using the Glauber model plus the kinetic formation model. Initial J/psi production and destruction by incoming nucleons are described by the Glauber model. J/psi-charm equilibration in the gluon plasma is described by the kinetic formation model. We explore the possibility of J/psi suppression suggested by the recent PHENIX data. We show that the J/psi yield monotonically decreases with increasing centrality in the kinetic formation model when the charm mass is smaller than a critical mass. The final J/psi yield is between the value after the Glauber suppression and the dynamical equilibrium value. This underscores the importance of both J/psi production from d-Au collisions, which is essential in determining the Glauber suppression, and high statistics Au-Au data, which can further constrain final state J/psi-charm equilibration

J/Psi Suppression in Heavy Ion Collisions at the CERN SPS

We reexamine the production of J/Psi and other charmonium states for a variety of target-projectile choices at the SPS. For this study we use a newly constructed cascade code LUCIFER II, which yields acceptable descriptions of both hard and soft processes, specifically Drell-Yan and hidden charm production, and soft energy loss and meson production, at the SPS. Glauber calculations of other authors are redone, and compared directly to the cascade results. The modeling of the charmonium states differs from that of earlier workers in its unified treatment of the hidden charm meson spectrum, which is introduced from the outset as a set of coupled states. The result is a description of the NA38 and NA50 data in terms of a conventional hadronic picture. The apparently anomalous suppression found in the most massive Pb+Pb system arises from three sources: destruction in the initial nucleon-nucleon cascade, use of coupled channels to exploit the larger breakup in the less bound Chi and Psi' states, and comover interaction in the final low energy phase.Comment: 36 pages (15 figures

Heavy Quarkonium Physics

This report is the result of the collaboration and research effort of the Quarkonium Working Group over the last three years. It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in heavy-quarkonium theory and experiment, covering quarkonium spectroscopy, decay, and production, the determination of QCD parameters from quarkonium observables, quarkonia in media, and the effects on quarkonia of physics beyond the Standard Model. An introduction to common theoretical and experimental tools is included. Future opportunities for research in quarkonium physics are also discussed.Comment: xviii + 487 pages, 260 figures. The full text is also available at the Quarkonium Working Group web page: http://www.qwg.to.infn.i

Measurement of the Λ hyperon lifetime

A new, more precise measurement of the Lambda hyperon lifetime is performed using a large data sample of Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV with ALICE. The Lambda and (Lambda)_bar hyperons are reconstructed at midrapidity using their two-body weak decay channel Lambda -> p + pi(-) and (Lambda)_bar -> (p )_bar + pi(+). The measured value of the Lambda lifetime is tau(Lambda) = [261.07 +/- 0.37(stat.) +/- 0.72o(syst)] ps. The relative difference between the lifetime of Lambda and (Lambda)_bar, which represents an important test of CPT invariance in the strangeness sector, is also measured. The obtained value (tau(Lambda) - tau((Lambda)_bar))/tau(Lambda) = (0.0013 +/- 0.0028(stat.) +/- 0.0021(syst.) is consistent with zero within the uncertainties. Both measurements of the. hyperon lifetime and of the relative difference between tau(Lambda) and tau((Lambda)_bar) are in agreement with the corresponding world averages of the Particle Data Group and about a factor of three more precise

INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions: the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on the Future Circular Collider.Comment: 99 pages, 56 figure