Coherent J/psi production - a novel feature at LHC?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the production mechanism of J/psi mesons in hadron-nucleus collisions changes with energy, showing a transition from incoherent to coherent scattering at high energies, and predicts suppression effects at LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a model describing the energy-dependent transition in heavy-quark production mechanisms and provides parameter-free predictions for J/psi suppression at LHC energies.

Findings

Transition from longitudinal to coherent scattering occurs at RHIC energies for J/psi.

Model agrees with RHIC data without free parameters.

Predicts significant J/psi suppression at LHC.

Abstract

Energy dependence of heavy quarkonia production in hadron-nucleus collisions is studied in the framework of the Glauber-Gribov theory. We emphasize a change in the space-time picture of heavy-quark state production on nuclei with energy. Longitudinally ordered scattering of a heavy-quark system takes place at low energies, while with increasing energy it transforms to a coherent scattering of projectile partons on the nuclear target. The characteristic energy scale for this transition depends on masses and rapidities of produced particles. For J/psi, produced in the central rapidity region, the transition happens at RHIC energies. The parameter-free calculation of J/psi in dAu collisions is in good agreement with recent RHIC data. We use distributions of gluons in nuclei to predict suppression of heavy quarkonia at LHC.