Transverse momentum dependence of charmonium suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN SPS

• Published in: Nuclear Physics A 2005, Vol.749, p.243-250
• Main Authors: Kurepin, A.B., Alessandro, B., Alexa, C., Arnaldi, R., Atayan, M., Beolè, S., Boldea, V., Bordalo, P., Borges, G., Castanier, C., Castor, J., Chaurand, B., Cheynis, B., Chiavassa, E., Cicalo, C., Comets, M.P., Constantinescu, S., Cortese, P., De Falco, A., De Marco, N., Dellacasa, G., Devaux, A., Dita, S., Fargeix, J., Force, P., Gallio, M., Gerschel, C., Giubellino, P., Golubeva, M.B., Grigorian, A.A., Grigorian, S., Guber, F.F., Guichard, A., Gulkanyan, H., Idzik, M., Jouan, D., Karavitcheva, T.L., Kluberg, L., Le Bornec, Y., Lourenço, C., Mac Cormick, M., Marzari-Chiesa, A., Masera, M., Masoni, A., Monteno, M., Musso, A., Petiau, P., Piccotti, A., Pizzi, J.R., Prino, F., Puddu, G., Quintans, C., Ramello, L., Ramos, S., Riccati, L., Santos, H., Saturnini, P., Scomparin, E., Serci, S., Shahoyan, R., Sigaudo, F., Sitta, M., Sonderegger, P., Tarrago, X., Topilskaya, N.S., Usai, G.L., Vercellin, E., Villatte, L., Willis, N., Wu, T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics
• ISSN: 0375-9474; 1873-1554
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2004.12.046

Charmonium suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon is investigated in detail with the study of the transverse momentum distributions of J/ ψ as a function of the centrality of the collision. It is shown that the observed J/ ψ suppression in Pb-Pb interactions is particularly significant mainly at low transverse momentum where it strongly depends on centrality. For peripheral Pb-Pb collisions, the transverse momentum dependence of the J/ ψ cross section is, as a function of centrality, qualitatively similar to the dependence observed in p-A and S-U collisions. Comparing peripheral and central Pb-Pb collisions, the data show a relative suppression in the whole p T range although its amplitude significantly decreases with increasing p T and becomes almost p T independent for the highest p T values.