Towards quarkonium formation time determination

Abstract

We propose a parametrization of the nuclear absorption mechanism relying on the proper time spent by $${c} {{{\overline{{c}}}}} $$ c c ¯ bound states travelling in nuclear matter. Our approach could lead to the extraction of charmonium formation time. It is based on a large amount of proton-nucleus data, from nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies $${\sqrt{s_{NN}}} =27{\mathrm {\,Ge V}} $$ s NN = 27 Ge V to $${\sqrt{s_{NN}}} =5.02{\mathrm {\,Te V}} $$ s NN = 5.02 Te V , collected in the past 30 years, and for which the main effect on charmonium production must be its absorption by the nuclear matter it crosses.

Towards Experimental Confirmation of Quarkonia Melting in Quark–Gluon Plasma: A Review of Recent Measurements of Quarkonia Production in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

“…The remaining collisional dissociation models are only shown in the most central AuAu bin (0-20%), and are based on NRQCD calculations computed with two different values of the charmonium formation time ("t max " and "t min ") [76]. The precision of the experimental data cannot yet distinguish between the two formation time scenarios, but this might be possible in the future [77]. All of the models also include cold nuclear matter effects on J/ψ production.…”