Charmonium suppression at RHIC and SPS: a hadronic baseline

TL;DR

This paper models J/psi suppression in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and SPS using a hadronic resonance gas approach, explaining experimental data including rapidity dependence as a geometric absorption effect.

Contribution

It introduces a kinetic equation model that successfully reproduces J/psi suppression and rapidity dependence observed in experiments, providing a hadronic baseline.

Findings

Successfully describes statistical hadron production at RHIC and SPS

Reproduces rapidity dependence as a geometric absorption effect

Provides a hadronic baseline for J/psi suppression

Abstract

A kinetic equation approach is applied to model anomalous J/psi suppression at RHIC and SPS by absorption in a hadron resonance gas which successfully describes statistical hadron production in both experiments. The puzzling rapidity dependence of the PHENIX data is reproduced as a geometric effect due to a longer absorption path for J/psi production at forward rapidity.