Session 2WB: Pre-Meeting Workshop: Properties and Signatures of sQGP II

2:00 PM–3:00 PM, Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Gaylord Opryland - Bayou B

Sponsoring Unit: DNP
Chair: Charles Maguire, Vanderbilt University

Abstract: 2WB.00002 : $J/\psi$ production and interactions with the medium

2:30 PM–3:00 PM

Preview Abstract

Author:

  Alexandre Lebedev
    (Iowa State University)

$J/\psi$ production provides a sensitive probe of the properties of the hot and dense medium created in high energy heavy ion collisions at RHIC. $J/\psi$ suppression due to Debye screening was long considered to be a leading signature of Quark Gluon Plasma formation. Recent theoretical studies suggest that such suppression can be compensated by recombination, or explain suppression by decreased feed-dowm from "melted" higher mass quarkonia, while $J/\psi$'s themselves remain unscreened. Measurement of $J/\psi$ production in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC can clarify these questions. Baseline measurements in pp and dAu collisions can be used to distinguish cold nuclear matter effects. In this talk I will review recent results in this field from the PHENIX Experiment.