Quarkonium Production and Proposal of the New Experiments on Fixed Target at the LHC

The brief review of the experimental data on quarkonium productions measured at the CERN SPS, at the Brookhaven Collider RHIC, and at the LHC is presented. The dissociation of quarkonium resonances produced in heavy ion collisions was suggested as a possible signal of the Quark-Gluon Plasma formation. At the CERN SPS, the anomalous suppression of the J/ψ production was observed in central Pb-Pb collisions by the NA50 collaboration. However, the effects of J/ψ suppression on cold nuclear matter, feed-down production from higher charmonium states, and regeneration processes should be taken into account. If proton and ion beams at the LHC will be used with fixed targets, the energy interval between the SPS energy and the nominal RHIC energy (200 GeV) could be investigated. The high statistics data on quarkonium productions at these energies will give the possibility of clarifying the mechanism of charmonium productions to investigate the importance of the recombination process, since the probability of recombination decreases with decreasing the energy of collisions

Bottomonium and Drell-Yan production in p-A collisions at 450 GeV

The NA50 Collaboration has measured heavy-quarkonium production in p-A collisions at 450 GeV incident energy (sqrt(s) = 29.1 GeV). We report here results on the production of the Upsilon states and of high-mass Drell-Yan muon pairs (m > 6 GeV). The cross-section at midrapidity and the A-dependence of the measured yields are determined and compared with the results of other fixed-target experiments and with the available theoretical estimates. Finally, we also address some issues concerning the transverse momentum distributions of the measured dimuons.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Lett.

J/psi azimuthal anisotropy relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

The J/$\psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane has been measured by the NA50 experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon. Various physical mechanisms related to charmonium dissociation in the medium created in the heavy ion collision are expected to introduce an anisotropy in the azimuthal distribution of the observed J/$\psi$ mesons at SPS energies. Hence, the measurement of J/$\psi$ elliptic anisotropy, quantified by the Fourier coefficient v$_2$ of the J/$\psi$ azimuthal distribution relative to the reaction plane, is an important tool to constrain theoretical models aimed at explaining the anomalous J/$\psi$ suppression observed in Pb-Pb collisions. We present the measured J/$\psi$ yields in different bins of azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, as well as the resulting values of the Fourier coefficient v$_{2}$ as a function of the collision centrality and of the J/$\psi$ transverse momentum. The reaction plane has been estimated from the azimuthal distribution of the neutral transverse energy detected in an electromagnetic calorimeter. The analysis has been performed on a data sample of about 100 000 events, distributed in five centrality or p$_{\rm T}$ sub-samples. The extracted v$_{2}$ values are significantly larger than zero for non-central collisions and are seen to increase with p$_{\rm T}$.Comment: proceedings of HP08 conference corrected a typo in one equatio

The dependence of the anomalous J/psi suppression on the number of participant nucleons

The observation of an anomalous J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions by the NA50 Collaboration can be considered as the most striking indication for the deconfinement of quarks and gluons at SPS energies. In this Letter, we determine the J/psi suppression pattern as a function of the forward hadronic energy E-ZDC measured in a Zero Degree Calorimeter (ZDC). The direct connection between EZDC and the geometry of the collision allows us to calculate, within a Glauber approach, the precise relation between the number of participant nucleons N-part and E-ZDC. Then, we check if the experimental data can be better explained by a sudden or a smooth onset of the anomalous J/psi suppression as a function of the number of participants. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A new measurement of J/psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon

We present a new measurement of J/psi production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/nucleon, from the data sample collected in year 2000 by the NA50 Collaboration, under improved experimental conditions with respect to previous years. With the target system placed in vacuum, the setup was better adapted to study, in particular, the most peripheral nuclear collisions with unprecedented accuracy. The analysis of this data sample shows that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio measured in the most peripheral Pb-Pb interactions is in good agreement with the nuclear absorption pattern extrapolated from the studies of proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, this new measurement confirms our previous observation that the (J/psi)/Drell-Yan cross-sections ratio departs from the normal nuclear absorption pattern for semi-central Pb-Pb collisions and that this ratio persistently decreases up to the most central collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Eur. Phys. J.

Centrality Behaviour of J/ψ\psi Production in Na50

The J/$\psi$ production in 158 A GeV Pb-Pb interactions is studied, in the dimuon decay channel, as a function of centrality, as measured with the electromagnetic or with the very forward calorimeters. After a first sharp variation at mid centrality, both patterns continue to fall down and exhibit a curvature change at high centrality values. This trend excludes any conventional hadronic model and is in agreement with a deconfined quark-gluon phase scenario. We report also preliminary results on the measured charged multiplicity, as given by a dedicated detector.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures (in eps) talk given at XXXI International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Sep. 1-7, 2001, Datong China URL http://ismd31.ccnu.edu.cn

NA50 final results on charmonia suppression

NA50The last results from the NA50 experiment on charmonia production in Pb-Pb interactions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon are presented. A strong J/$\psi$ suppression is observed, which increases with the centrality of the collisions. The J/$\psi$ production is seen to be anomalously suppressed starting at mid-centralities, when compared to a reference taken from proton-induced collisions. The most recent developments on the determination of this normal absorption curve are explained. It is also shown that for sulphur-induced reactions there is full agreement with the extrapolated normal p-A behaviour. The suppression of $\psi'$ production in heavy ion collisions (Pb-Pb and S-U) is also presented. It is seen to increase with the centrality of the collisions, and to be significantly stronger than the one measured in proton-induced reactions

Charmonia and Drell-Yan production in proton-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS

Charmonium production in p-A collisions is a unique tool for the study of the interaction of bound ccbar in nuclear matter. It can provide details on the basic features of the resonance formation mechanism and, in particular, on its non-perturbative aspects. In this Letter, we present an experimental study of Charmonia and Drell-Yan production in proton-nucleus collisions at 450GeV/c. The results are analyzed in the framework of the Glauber model and lead to the values of the nuclear absorption cross-section sigma^abs_pA for j/psi and psi'. Then, we compare the J/psi absorption in proton-nucleus and sulphur-uranium interactions, using NA38 data. We obtain that, for the J/psi, omega^abs_pA and omega^abs_SU are compatible, showing that no sizeable additional suppression mechanism in present S-U collisions, and confirming that the anomalous J/psi suppression only sets in for Pb-Pb interactions