Prompt and non-prompt J$/\psi$ production at midrapidity in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV

TL;DR

This study measures the suppression of prompt and non-prompt J/ψ particles in lead-lead collisions at 5.02 TeV, revealing significant suppression at high transverse momentum and providing insights into quark-gluon plasma effects.

Contribution

First measurement of prompt and non-prompt J/ψ suppression at low transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV, covering a kinematic region not accessible by other LHC experiments.

Findings

Significant suppression of J/ψ at pT > 5 GeV/c, increasing with centrality.

Decreasing suppression trend at lower pT for prompt J/ψ, consistent with recombination models.

Model predictions for non-prompt J/ψ suppression agree with measurements within uncertainties.

Abstract

The transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) and centrality dependence of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ of prompt and non-prompt J$/\psi$, the latter originating from the weak decays of beauty hadrons, have been measured by the ALICE collaboration in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV. The measurements are carried out through the ${\rm e}^{+}{\rm e}^{-}$ decay channel at midrapidity ($|y| < 0.9$) in the transverse momentum region $1.5 < p_{\rm T} < 10$ GeV/$c$. Both prompt and non-prompt J$/\psi$ measurements indicate a significant suppression for $p_{\rm T} >$ 5 GeV/$c$, which becomes stronger with increasing collision centrality. The results are consistent with similar LHC measurements in the overlapping $p_{\rm T}$ intervals, and cover the kinematic region down to $p_{\rm T}$ = 1.5 GeV/$c$ at midrapidity, not accessible by other LHC experiments. The suppression of prompt J$/\psi$ in central and semicentral collisions exhibits a decreasing trend towards lower transverse momentum, described within uncertainties by models implementing J$/\psi$ production from recombination of c and $\overline{\rm c}$ quarks produced independently in different partonic scatterings. At high transverse momentum, transport models including quarkonium dissociation are able to describe the suppression for prompt J$/\psi$. For non-prompt J$/\psi$, the suppression predicted by models including both collisional and radiative processes for the computation of the beauty-quark energy loss inside the quark$-$gluon plasma is consistent with measurements within uncertainties.