Probing charmonia resonances in proton-lead collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper extends NRQCD and MNRQCD models to proton-lead collisions at the LHC, predicting charmonia production cross-sections and ratios, and highlights the need for further experimental validation of these models.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical predictions of charmonia production cross-sections and nuclear modification factors in p-Pb collisions at the LHC using extended NRQCD frameworks.

Findings

MNRQCD agrees reasonably with LHC data for J/ψ production

Predictions show significant differences in cross-sections for ηc and h_c states

Highlights the importance of further experimental studies of quarkonium resonances

Abstract

After achieving a successful description of charmonia production in proton-proton (pp) collisions within Non-Relativistic Quantum Chromodynamics (NRQCD) and modified NRQCD (MNRQCD) frameworks, we now extend our study to proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In this context, theoretical predictions for the production cross-section, the nuclear modification factor $R_{pPb}$ and forward -to-backward production ratio $R_{FB}$ of $J/\psi$ have been made as a function of transverse momentum and rapidity at the LHC. MNRQCD provides a reasonable agreement with the available LHC data for $J/\psi$ production. Furthermore, using the heavy quark symmetry relation, we have estimated the production cross sections and expected number of events of $\eta_{c}$ and $h_{c}$ production in both NRQCD and MNRQCD. Notably, the predictions exhibit substantial differences in the integrated cross-sections as well as in the $p_T$ distributions for these states at the LHC, highlighting the importance of further experimental and theoretical studies of these resonances to advance our understanding of quarkonium production.