Charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This review discusses the current theoretical and experimental understanding of charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions, emphasizing suppression, regeneration, and their use as probes of hot dense matter.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent advances in lattice QCD, effective potential models, and kinetic theory to better understand quarkonium behavior in quark-gluon plasma.

Findings

Quarkonium suppression patterns vary with collision energy and environment.

Regeneration effects significantly influence observed quarkonium yields.

Future experiments will enhance understanding of quark-gluon plasma properties.

Abstract

We review the present status in the theoretical and phenomenological understanding of charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions. We start by recapitulating the basic notion of "anomalous quarkonium suppression" in heavy-ion collisions and its recent amendments involving regeneration reactions. We then survey in some detail concepts and ingredients needed for a comprehensive approach to utilize heavy quarkonia as a probe of hot and dense matter. The theoretical discussion encompasses recent lattice QCD computations of quarkonium properties in the Quark-Gluon Plasma, their interpretations using effective potential models, inelastic rate calculations and insights from analyses of electromagnetic plasmas. We illustrate the powerful techniques of thermodynamic Green functions (T-matrices) to provide a general framework for implementing microscopic properties of heavy quarkonia into a kinetic theory of suppression and regeneration reactions. The theoretical concepts are tested in applications to heavy-ion reactions at SPS, RHIC and LHC. We outline perspectives for future experiments on charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions over a large range in energy (FAIR, RHIC-II and LHC). These are expected to provide key insights into hadronic matter under extreme conditions using quarkonium observables.