Open-quantum-systems approach to in-medium heavy quarkonium dynamics

TL;DR

This paper discusses a new theoretical approach using open-quantum systems to understand how heavy quarkonium behaves in extreme nuclear matter conditions, highlighting the roles of screening and decoherence in its dissociation.

Contribution

It introduces an open-quantum systems framework to describe in-medium heavy quarkonium dynamics, clarifying the origin of the imaginary potential and the melting mechanism.

Findings

Imaginary part of the potential interpreted through quantum decoherence

Screening and decoherence interplay causes quarkonium melting

Open-quantum systems approach offers new insights into quarkonium in nuclear matter

Abstract

Heavy quarkonium continues to play a central role in the study of nuclear matter under extremes of temperature and density in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this talk I report on recent developments in the theoretical description of quarkonium in-medium dynamics using the open-quantum systems approach. Not only does it provide a clear interpretation of the imaginary part of the complex heavy-quark potential but also reveals that a subtle interplay between screening and wavefunction decoherence is responsible for the melting of heavy quarkonium states.