Quarkonia and QGP studies

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent lattice QCD and T-matrix studies on heavy quarkonia in quark-gluon plasma, highlighting dissociation temperatures, medium effects, and potential connections to experimental suppression patterns and exotic states.

Contribution

It introduces a combined approach of lattice QCD, T-matrix calculations, and quantum mechanical modeling to analyze quarkonia behavior in hot QCD matter, proposing new insights into dissociation mechanisms.

Findings

Quarkonia dissociate around 1.2 to 1.5 times the critical temperature.

Medium effects significantly influence quarkonia evolution and suppression patterns.

Possible link between suppression data and the X(3872) exotic state.

Abstract

We summarize results of recent studies of heavy quarkonia correlators and spectral functions at finite temperatures from lattice QCD and systematic T-matrix studies using QCD motivated finite-temperature potentials. We argue that heavy quarkonia dissociation shall occur in the temperature range $1.2 \le T_d/T_c \le 1.5$ by the interplay of both screening and absorption in the strongly correlated plasma medium. We discuss these effects on the quantum mechanical evolution of quarkonia states within a time-dependent harmonic oscillator model with complex oscillator strength and compare the results with data for $R_{\rm AA}/R_{\rm AA}^{\rm CNM}$ from RHIC and SPS experiments. We speculate whether the suppression pattern of the rather precise NA60 data from In-In collisions may be related to the recently discovered X(3872) state. Theoretical support for this hypothesis comes from the cluster expansion of the plasma Hamiltonian for heavy quarkonia in a strongly correlated medium.