Influence of a nontrivial Polyakov loop on the quarkonium states

TL;DR

This study investigates how a nontrivial Polyakov loop affects heavy quarkonium properties in a medium, revealing increased binding energies and potential implications for quarkonium spectra in high-energy collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid model combining phenomenological potential and background field theory to analyze Polyakov loop effects without temperature-dependent parameters.

Findings

Reduced screening near deconfinement enhances quarkonium binding.

Nontrivial Polyakov loop increases dissociation temperatures for large states.

Potential impact on quarkonium yields in heavy-ion collision experiments.

Abstract

Using a hybrid approach based on a phenomenological heavy-quark potential model and the background field effective theory, we assess the influence of a nontrivial Polyakov loop on the in-medium properties of the heavy quarkonium states. Without resorting to any temperature-dependent parameter, the lattice simulations on the complex heavy-quark potential are well reproduced with the potential model in which the screening masses are determined by the background field effective theory. Due to the reduced screening strength near the deconfining temperature, a nontrivial Polyakov loop leads to a dramatic increase in the binding energies, together with a moderate decrease in the decay widths. In general, a more tightly bounded quarkonium state can be expected, although the increase in the dissociation temperatures is significant only for relatively large-size bounded states. Our results indicate that the background field modification on the binding and decay of the quarkonium states may have a notable impact on the density evolution of quarkonia during the expansion of the fireball, and thus on the final observed quarkonium spectra.