Quarkonium formation in statistical and kinetic models

Abstract

I review the present status of two related models addressing scenarios in which the formation of heavy quarkonium states in high energy heavy ion collisions proceed via "off-diagonal" combinations of a quark and an antiquark. The physical process involved belongs to a general class of quark "recombination", although technically the recombining quarks here were never previously bound in a quarkonium state. Features of these processes relevant as a signature of color deconfinement are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, based on invited plenary talk at Hard Probes 2004, Ericeira, Portugal, November 3-11, 2004, to appear in the proceeding