Charmonium suppression at RHIC: Signature of a strongly-interacting QGP, not a weakly interacting

TL;DR

This paper revises the equation of state for strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma to include non-perturbative effects, successfully explaining J/psi suppression data at RHIC and predicting upsilon suppression at LHC.

Contribution

It introduces a non-perturbative equation of state for QGP that aligns with lattice results and accurately predicts quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Agreement with lattice QCD thermodynamics

Accurate prediction of J/psi suppression at RHIC

Predictions for upsilon suppression at LHC

Abstract

Following a recent work on equation of state for strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma [J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 32, 993 (2006)], we revisited the equation of state by incorporating the non-perturbative effects in the deconfined plasma phase. Our results on thermodynamic observables viz. pressure, energy density, speed of sound etc. nicely fit with the lattice equation of state for gluon, massless and as well massive flavored plasma. Motivated by this agreement with lattice results, we have employed our equation of state to estimate the quarkonium suppression in an expanding, dissipative strongly interacting QGP produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and our prediction matches exactly with the recent PHENIX data on the centrality dependence of $J/\psi$ suppression in Au+Au collisions at BNL RHIC. We have also predicted for the $\Upsilon$ suppression in Pb+Pb collisions at LHC energy which could be tested in the ALICE experiments at CERN LHC.