Experimental Aspects of Heavy Quarkonium Production at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the experimental challenges and potential measurements related to heavy quarkonium production, specifically J/psi and Upsilon(1S), at the LHC, emphasizing observables beyond cross sections and polarization.

Contribution

It explores the sensitivity of LHC detectors to new observables associated with quarkonium production, offering insights into radiation effects and production mechanisms.

Findings

Detector sensitivity to radiation in quarkonium events analyzed

Potential for new observables beyond cross section and polarization

Enhanced understanding of quarkonium production at high transverse momentum

Abstract

More than 30 years after the discovery of the J/psi, its production mechanism is still poorly understood. With the LHC data it will be possible to study quarkonia up to very high transverse momenta and with high statistics. In this note we discuss experimental aspects of J/psi and Upsilon(1S) production at the LHC. In particular, we investigate the sensitivity of a general purpose LHC detector to observables, which are complementary to the cross section and polarisation measurement. These observables would be sensitive to the radiation produced in association with the quarkonium.