$J/\psi$ and $\eta_c$ in the Deconfined Plasma from Lattice QCD

TL;DR

This study uses lattice QCD and the maximum entropy method to show that $J/$ and $$ charmonia remain as bound states in the quark-gluon plasma up to about 1.6 times the critical temperature, indicating a non-perturbative deconfined phase.

Contribution

First lattice QCD analysis demonstrating the survival of charmonia in the deconfined phase up to 1.6 $T_c$ using MEM with emphasis on data point importance.

Findings

$J/$ and $$ survive up to 1.6 $T_c$

Charmonia dissociate between 1.6 and 1.9 $T_c$

Sufficient temporal data points are crucial for MEM analysis

Abstract

Analyzing correlation functions of charmonia at finite temperature ($T$) on $32^3\times(32-96)$ anisotropic lattices by the maximum entropy method (MEM), we find that $J/\psi$ and $\eta_c$ survive as distinct resonances in the plasma even up to $T \simeq 1.6 T_c$ and that they eventually dissociate between $1.6 T_c$ and $1.9 T_c$ ($T_c$ is the critical temperature of deconfinement). This suggests that the deconfined plasma is non-perturbative enough to hold heavy-quark bound states. The importance of having sufficient number of temporal data points in MEM analyses is also emphasized.