We present a measurement of inclusive J/ψ production in p-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 5.02 TeV as a function of the centrality of the collision, as estimated from the energy deposited in the Zero Degree Calorimeters. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector down to zero transverse momentum, p T , in the backward (−4.46 < y cms < −2.96) and forward (2.03 < y cms < 3.53) rapidity intervals in the dimuon decay channel and in the mid-rapidity region (−1.37 < y cms < 0.43) in the dielectron decay channel. The backward and forward rapidity intervals correspond to the Pb-going and p-going direction, respectively. The p T -differential J/ψ production cross section at backward and forward rapidity is measured for several centrality classes, together with the corresponding average p T and p T 2 values. The nuclear modification factor is presented as a function of centrality for the three rapidity intervals, and as a function of p T for several centrality classes at backward and forward rapidity. At mid-and forward rapidity, the J/ψ yield is suppressed up to 40% compared to that in pp interactions scaled by the number of binary collisions. The degree of suppression increases towards central p-Pb collisions at forward rapidity, and with decreasing p T of the J/ψ. At backward rapidity, the nuclear modification factor is compatible with unity within the total uncertainties, with an increasing trend from peripheral to central p-Pb collisions. The ALICE collaboration 26
IntroductionCharmonia, bound states of charm and anti-charm quark pairs, are extensively used to study the interplay between the perturbative and the non-perturbative regimes of Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD) [1]. Charmonium production mechanism can be understood as a hard scattering, describing the charm anti-charm quark pair production, followed by the evolution of the pair into a bound state via a non-perturbative process. Models such as colour evaporation (CEM) [2, 3], colour singlet (CSM) [4] and non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) [5] are used to describe the charmonium production in hadronic collisions. None of these models has so far provided a consistent description of the production cross section and polarisation measured in proton-proton (pp) collisions [1,6]. The 1S vector state, the J/ψ meson, is abundantly produced in hadronic collisions at high energy and measurable through its leptonic decays. Its inclusive production contains contributions from direct J/ψ, from decays of higher-mass excited states, ψ(2S) and χ c , as well as from non-prompt J/ψ, from weak decays of beauty hadrons. In proton-nucleus (p-A) collisions, several effects related to the nuclear medium and commonly denoted as cold nuclear matter effects (CNM) can affect the production of charmonia. The Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) of nucleons bound in nuclei are modified compared to those of free nucleons [7][8][9]. These functions depend, in particular, on the fraction of the nucleon momentum, Bjorken-x (x Bj ), carried by the probed parton. In the collision energy...