Quarkonium suppression from coherent energy loss in fixed-target experiments using LHC beams

TL;DR

This paper presents a model explaining quarkonium suppression in proton-nucleus collisions through coherent energy loss, applicable across various energies, and predicts nuclear modification factors for fixed-target experiments at LHC energies.

Contribution

The study introduces a coherent energy loss model that successfully describes quarkonium suppression across a wide energy range, including fixed-target LHC experiments.

Findings

Model explains quarkonium suppression data across energies

Predicted nuclear modification factors for fixed-target experiments

Supports cold energy loss as dominant suppression mechanism

Abstract

Quarkonium production in proton-nucleus collisions is a powerful tool to disentangle cold nuclear matter effects. A model based on coherent energy loss is able to explain the available quarkonium suppression data in a broad range of rapidities, from fixed-target to collider energies, suggesting cold energy loss to be the dominant effect in quarkonium suppression in p-A collisions. This could be further tested in a high-energy fixed-target experiment using a proton or nucleus beam. The nuclear modification factors of J/$\psi$ and $\Upsilon$ as a function of rapidity are computed in p-A collisions at $\sqrt{s}=114.6$ GeV, and in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=72$ GeV. These center-of-mass energies correspond to the collision on fixed-target nuclei of 7 TeV protons and 2.76 TeV lead nuclei available at the LHC.