Charmonium Production and Corona Effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates how charmonium production varies with collision centrality in high-energy nuclear collisions, proposing a universal geometric model based on the corona effect that applies across different energies and rapidities.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric model of charmonium suppression based on the corona effect, providing a unified description for RHIC and LHC data.

Findings

The ratio of charmonium to open charm follows a universal geometric pattern.

The model explains centrality dependence across different collision energies.

Suppression occurs mainly in the hot, deconfined core, with survival in the corona.

Abstract

We study the centrality dependence to be expected if only charmonium production in the corona survives in high energy nuclear collisions, with full suppression in the hot, deconfined core. To eliminate cold nuclear matter effects as far as possible, we consider the ratio of charmonium to open charm production. The centrality dependence of this ratio is found to follow a universal geometric form, applicable to both RHIC and LHC in collisions at central and forward rapidities.