Prospects for quarkonia production studies in U+U collisions

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of uranium-uranium collisions to study charmonium production, emphasizing the benefits of nuclear orientation control and higher energy densities for understanding in-medium effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to using U+U collisions for charmonium studies, including a new observable to differentiate interaction types in hot dense matter.

Findings

Higher energy densities achievable in U+U collisions.

Orientation selection allows for varied path lengths in the medium.

Proposal of a new observable to distinguish J/ψ interaction types.

Abstract

Collisions of deformed uranium nuclei provide a unique opportunity to study the spatial dependence of charmonium in-medium effects. By selecting the orientations of the colliding nuclei, different path lengths through the nuclear medium could be selected within the same experimental environment. In addition, higher energy densities can be achieved in U+U collisions relative to Au+Au collisions. In this paper, we investigate the prospects for charmonium studies with U+U collisions. We discuss the effects of shadowing and nuclear absorption on the J/\psi\ yield. We introduce a new observable which could help distinguish between different types of J/\psi\ interactions in hot and dense matter.