Universal kinematic scaling as a probe of factorized long-distance effects in high-energy quarkonium production

TL;DR

This paper introduces universal kinematic scaling rules for quarkonium production, providing experimental evidence for factorization in QCD and predicting feed-down fractions for charmonium and bottomonium states.

Contribution

It presents a novel dimensional analysis-based scaling approach that supports factorization in quarkonium production and predicts unmeasured feed-down contributions.

Findings

Strong experimental support for factorization in quarkonium production

Discovery of a correlation between cross sections and binding energies

Predictions for P-wave feed-down fractions

Abstract

Dimensional analysis reveals general kinematic scaling rules for the momentum, mass, and energy dependence of Drell-Yan and quarkonium cross sections. Their application to mid-rapidity LHC data provides strong experimental evidence supporting the validity of the factorization ansatz, a cornerstone of non-relativistic QCD, still lacking theoretical demonstration. Moreover, data-driven patterns emerge for the factorizable long-distance bound-state formation effects, including a remarkable correlation between the S-wave quarkonium cross sections and their binding energies. Assuming that this scaling can be extended to the P-wave case, we obtain precise predictions for the not yet measured feed-down fractions, thereby providing a complete picture of the charmonium and bottomonium feed-down structure. This is crucial information for quantitative interpretations of quarkonium production data, including studies of the suppression patterns measured in nucleus-nucleus collisions.