# J/𝜓 Suppression in Heavy Ion Collisions at the CERN SPS

## 1 Introduction

The possible use of J$`/\psi `$ suppression as a signal of unusual behaviour in relativistic ion collisions, first suggested by Matsui and Satz , has attracted considerable experimental and theoretical study. Great interest has attached to the results obtained by the NA50 collaboration for charmonium production in Pb+Pb collisions at $`158`$ GeV/c: to the early findings presented at the Quark Matter 1996 meeting  as well as to the startling data later released at RHIC’97 . The success of Glauber-like calculations of J/$`\psi `$ production and breakup in the p+A and S+U  systems, coupled with a failure of Glauber to provide an equally good description of the apparently accelerated absorption in Pb+Pb has been widely interpreted  as a signal of QCD plasma creation in these collisions. The very sharp behaviour of the J/$`\psi `$ yield as a function of transverse energy $`E_t`$ seen in the later experiment  has especially attracted attention.

We attempt to retrace this ground theoretically , employing a new, two phase cascade approach, described in detail elsewhere , combined with a variation of the Satz-Kharzeev model for production and annihilation of charmonium in the initial baryonic collisions. This modeling described below, allows the coupled-channel aspect of the hidden charm spectroscopy, $`\{\psi ,\chi ^i,\psi ^{}\}`$ to play a more central role. In this first application, we include partons in a minimal fashion, to describe for example Drell-Yan production. Hence we are testing a ‘purely’ hadronic description of the anomalous Pb+Pb measurements.

It has been pointed out that a hadronic picture might succeed  without invoking quark-gluon plasma (QGP) creation, if at least part of the seemingly anomalous suppression in Pb+Pb could be produced by comover annihilation, i.e. by interactions of the J/$`\psi `$ with secondary mesons generated in the ion-ion collision. The second phase in LUCIFER II, which is a low energy cascade, perforce includes the effect of J/$`\psi `$ destruction through such comover rescattering.

In LUCIFER II we have attempted to separate hard and soft processes by time scale, see Fig(2), so as to permit partonic and hadronic cascading to be joined naturally, in a modular fashion. The separation is effected through the use of a short time scale, automatically present at high energies: the time $`T_{AB}`$ taken for the two interacting nuclei A and B to traverse each other in the global collision frame. The uncertainty principle allows hard interactions involving sufficiently high energy-momentum transfer, i.e.  for $`Q^1T_{AB}`$, to take place in the first and very rapid cascade. Soft processes involving low tranverse momentum are not completed until later. Thus in the initial fast cascading the nucleons lose no energy but are still aware of the number and nature of the two-particle collisions they have undergone.

Specifically, the method  consists of running the cascade in two stages. The first is a high energy fast-time mode in which collision histories are recorded and fast processes (Drell-Yan and charmonium production) are allowed to occur. Using the entire space-time and energy-momentum history of this stage, a reinitialisation of the cascade is performed using elementary hadron-hadron data as a strict guide. The final positions and momenta of baryons in the first phase, and the number of collisions they suffer are recorded and used to generate produced mesons together with their initial momentum and space-time coordinates. In the initial ion-ion collision the interacting nucleon paths are almost along light-cones. The second cascade begins at $`T_{AB}`$, the time of the last nucleon-nucleon collision, with initial conditions specified by the reinitialisation, but no secondary interactions are allowed until a formation time for produced mesons has passed. The participants in the second phase are generic mesons, thought of as of $`q\overline{q}`$-like in character with masses centered near $`M_{q\overline{q}}=700`$ MeV and in the range $`M_{q\overline{q}}0.31.1`$ GeV. Generic baryons consisting of $`qqq`$ are also included and are excited to rather light masses, $`M_{qqq}0.942.0`$ GeV . All the generic hadrons decay via sequential pion emission. Normal stable mesons and baryons are also present, and terminate the decay chains. See Fig(2) for a pictorial description of the model for basic hadron-hadron scattering.

Kharzeev and Satz  employ a model based on hadronic Glauber theory describing production and breakup of the J/$`\psi `$ in ion-ion collisions, to demonstrate that such a picture cannot account for the degree of suppression seen in Pb+Pb collisions at the SPS. Reasoning similarly, we can make a close comparison of our treatment with their work. The required initial production of a $`c\overline{c}`$ pair is handled within an effective hadronic formulation both in our work and in that of Kharzeev, et.al. . There are, naturally, specific and important differences between Glauber theory and a cascade model, and it is partly these differences which permit the so-called anomalous suppression in Pb+Pb to be explained within a purely hadronic framework.

The overall degree of suppression in Pb+Pb, insofar as it differs from earlier work , results from a combination of effects; these are baryonic, coupled channel and comover in kind, with substantial contributions arising from both phases of the cascade. There are potential unknown variables: the production and dynamic time evolution of each charmonium state, the breakup probabilities against both baryons and mesons, the density of secondary mesons. This last is to a large extent predicted by the cascade, which must agree with actual inclusive final state meson and baryon distributions. There also exist constraints on the basic charmonium variables. The production is in principle determined in elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions, the baryonic breakup in p+A collisions. The $`\psi \pi `$ breakup cross-sections are not known directly from any measurements.

We leave in this conference proceeding report the details of the cascade architecture to the perusal of a previous publication .

## 2 Coupled Channel Model for Charmonium

The treatment of the hidden charm $`c\overline{c}`$ mesons within a ‘purely’ hadronic code presents some problems, perhaps not fully solvable within the effective hadronic treatment of such states. We do not deviate much in spirit from the work of previous researchers , but the devil lies sufficiently in the details to produce some quantitative effects. The production of charmonium mesons is almost completely limited to that coming from nucleon-nucleon collisions at the highest energies, i.e. in the initial high energy cascade, not by fiat but by the greatly reduced collision energies in the second phase. Destruction of the charm meson precursors, in contrast, can occur in the first baryonic phase and also later in collisions with generic mesons and baryons in the second, low energy phase, i.e. on comovers. It is in the destruction of the charmonium states we differ most, ascribing a more direct role to the presence of the higher mass $`\chi `$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ mesons, for which in fact breakup is far easier. We include in Fig(4) a level diagram showing the relevant charmonium states to make the picture as clear as possible.

In the actual calculations of the above cited references both production and breakup are treated as instantaneous. There is no J/$`\psi `$ formation time in the high energy phase or its near cousin, the Glauber or eikonal modeling. Kharzeev et al.  in fact justify such a choice by referring to microscopic production of charmed quark pairs, the subsequent formation of a preresonant-resonant state from which all charmonium mesons emanate, and the breakup in relatively hard scattering by gluons radiating from nearby nucleons.

We imagine that the primordial $`c\overline{c}`$ pairs are originally produced essentially in plane wave states. Clearly, both singlet and octet color states are involved. This view is reasonable given the predominance of open charm production over hidden charm production in free space $`NN`$ collisions. We further suppose that in elementary $`NN`$ collisions the $`c\overline{c}`$ pair eventually coalesces, with a state dependent probability, into a J/$`\psi `$, $`\psi ^{}`$ or $`\chi `$. The time which elapses will be determined by the size of the bound state and the probability that a transition occurs. The probability of formation will depend critically on the relative momentum of the coalescing pair as well as on their spatial separation.

Therefore, whether one sees the early evolution of the eventual charmonium as a preresonant state or as plane waves may be immaterial. Given the small size of the J/$`\psi `$ as opposed to the much larger $`\psi ^{}`$ and $`\chi `$, the separation of the $`c`$ and $`\overline{c}`$ in the plane wave picture could equally well serve as a distinguishing feature. What can differentiate our calculation from the earlier models is the possibility of transitions between charmonium states dynamically in a nuclear environment. Certainly, the $`\chi ^1`$, $`\chi ^2`$ and $`\chi ^3`$ states are produced considerably more copiously in basic $`pp`$ collisions, with perhaps as high a ratio as $`\chi /\psi =45`$ , and they decay appreciably into J/$`\psi `$, with branching ratios in the range $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_b/\mathrm{\Gamma }1225`$% . The $`\psi ^{}`$ also feed some $`57\%`$ into J/$`\psi `$. It follows that one cannot ignore their presence.

This point becomes even more significant when one considers what the breakup probabilities for the higher mass charmonium states are likely to be, either in the fast or slow cascades. These heavier objects are considerably larger spatially and might well have total cross-sections on baryons or mesons proportional to the square of their colour dipole radius . One of our conclusions will be that a considerable portion of the anomalous suppression seen in Pb+Pb, even for quite large impact parameters, is a result of breakup in the higher charmonium states and an extinction of their free space feeding down.

What extra parameters has our model introduced relative to other treatments? We introduce a reaction matrix for charmonium states $`R_{ij}`$ which permits transitions between the states as well as diagonal, breakup, elements. Unitarity constrains this matrix. The diagonal elements should be present for other practitioners also but are not, in general, since only one preresonant charmonium state is usually considered. The quantitative reaction matrix $`R_{ij}`$ is specified in ensuing sections, but is in this work limited to diagonal.

The formation time for secondary mesons, $`\tau _f`$, controls the density of comovers at the onset of charmonium destruction. A reasonable choice for this parameter is $`\tau _f0.51`$ fm/c, in fact consistent with the production of $`\pi `$ mesons at the SPS . The effective formation time is actually somewhat longer, since it is increased by the duration of the fast cascade, i.e.  $`\tau _{eff}=\tau _f+T_{AB}/2`$.

The energy dependence of the elementary J/$`\psi `$ production cross-sections is shown in Fig(4). The sharp dependence of $`\sigma _{J/\psi }`$ on energy near the SPS values $`\sqrt{s}=1720`$ GeV implies that virtually all production occurs in the high energy phase.

## 3 Drell-Yan

The high energy phase, designed to record the initial interactions of the nucleons in the two colliding nuclei also provides the basis for our estimate of massive dilepton production. i.e. Drell-Yan, an important side of the quandary we faced at the start. We limit ourselves to the canonical FNAL  p+A measurement at 800 GeV/c, but in fact the method of calculation guarantees agreement with the lower energy p+A and A+B collected by NA50. Drell-Yan is generally considered to be calculable perturbatively for dilepton pairs with masses in excess of $`M_{\mu \mu }=4`$ GeV. Production in the short time defined by such masses proceeds without energy loss and leads to the linear $`A`$-dependence shown in Reference .

Any cascade which does not correctly describe the $`A`$ dependence of Drell-Yan is in danger of producing spurious charmonium suppression by means of premature energy loss. This point cannot be emphasized enough.

## 4 Charmonium Suppression in Nuclear Collisions

### 4.1 Minimum Bias: p+A and comparison to Glauber

We begin with the suppression in p+A for which comovers play little role. Even here, the first stage high energy cascade does not suffice for an accurate description, some of the suppression on baryons occurs only in the second stage, as slow J/$`\psi `$’s emerging from the interaction region are caught by nucleons, or interact at low energy in the target. To facilitate a comparison with the cascade we have made our own calculations with the Glauber formalism .

It is instructive to extend this comparison to A+A collisions to demonstrate that even Glauber does not reproduce the canonical power law, implied in the experimental descriptions , supposedly arising from purely baryonic breakup. These results are displayed in Fig(6) for the J/$`\psi `$. The absorption cross-section taken to reproduce the p+A observations at $`800`$ GeV/c , $`\sigma _{abs}7.0`$ mb , is equally successful for the lower SPS energies.

A second comparison can be made using the coupled channel modeling, which we employ in the full LUCIFER calculations below. The relative production of the different charmonium states is taken so as to reproduce the pp data from the ISR  for the $`\chi `$ to J/$`\psi `$ ratio, i.e. $`\chi /\psi 4.5`$, and for appropriate $`\psi ^{}`$ production . Our final results are rather insensitive to a choice in this range, since a decrease could easily be compensated by a small transition matrix element between J/$`\psi `$ and $`\chi `$.

A lesson, key to our development, is that the coupled channel model reproduces the Glauber result for J/$`\psi `$, using a smaller direct breakup cross-section, $`\sigma _{abs}(J/\psi )=56.0`$ mb, but including indirect destruction via the considerably larger $`\sigma _{abs}(\chi )=3\sigma _{abs}(J/\psi )`$ for $`\chi `$ and perhaps higher for $`\psi ^{}`$. The increased spatial sizes of the higher states strongly support the use of larger absorption cross-sections. One observes that pure Glauber theory and the first stage nucleon cascade, both produce deviations downward from any power law, and thus gathers there is a little bit of ‘anomalous’ suppression even in a bare bones, no comover, theory.

### 4.2 Suppression in A+B Collisions

To complete the picture one must allow the soft cascade to go forward for ion collisions where the production of mesons becomes significant. There are two sets of data to be considered: first, minimum bias J/$`\psi `$ cross-sections as a function of the product $`A\times B`$ of nuclear atomic numbers, and second the ratio of J/$`\psi `$ yield to Drell-Yan yield as a function of centrality, or more specifically transverse energy $`E_t`$.

Our results for minimum bias are displayed for the combined effect of both cascade phases in Fig(6). The anomalous suppression in Pb+Pb is well reproduced by the totality of our two step, but otherwise conventional, hadronic dynamics. Part of the additional suppression in Pb+Pb relative to S+U already arises from the high energy cascade, coming from the increased $`\chi `$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ breakup in the more massive nuclear collision. But a considerable differential suppression arises from comovers, both mesonic and hadronic, some $`40\%`$ of the difference between S+U and Pb+Pb. Part of the anomaly however, is perhaps illusory in view of the ‘curving down’ seen for large in Fig(6).

The calculated minimum bias $`\psi ^{}`$ suppression is compared to data in Fig(8). The strong drop occasioned by the large increase from p+W to S+U or Pb+Pb is clearly present in the theory. As is evident in this figure the $`\psi ^{}`$ breakup strength inferred from p+A proves sufficient for both S+U and Pb+Pb.

The breakup cross-sections in these simulations are $`6.6`$, $`20.0`$ and $`25.2`$ mb for the $`\psi `$, $`\chi ^i`$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ respectively. These represent absorption in charmonium-baryon collisions, and are reduced by the constituent quark factor $`2/3`$ in $`\psi `$-meson. Variation of these meson-meson cross-sections upwards to full equality with charmonium-baryon leads to $`0.5\%`$ change in the overall J/$`\psi `$ suppression for Pb+Pb (see Fig(8)).

This perhaps surprising non-linearity for the J/$`\psi `$ interaction arises because in our model this state is intrinsically tied up with the higher states. Introducing off diagonal elements $`R_{ij}`$ would produce a family of solutions. We have left well enough alone; the present few modeling parameters, now mostly determined independently of S+U or Pb+Pb data, surely having produced already an adequate description of observation, and any attempt to force a statistically accurate theory of the NA50 data, though possible, is not justified in such schematic models.

The survival probabilities for the J/$`\psi `$ in S+U are $`0.50`$ and $`0.67`$ in the hard and soft cascades respectively. The same figures for Pb+Pb are $`0.42`$ and $`0.775`$.

### 4.3 Centrality: Dependence on Transverse Energy

Perhaps the most striking features of the NA50  measurements are contained in their plot of J/$`\psi `$ suppression vs $`E_t`$. Unlike the existing Glauber calculations of transverse energy the cascade provides a built in $`E_t`$ scale, which does not necessarily agree exactly with the experimental determination. NA50 plots for J/$`\psi `$ and Drell-Yan show $`E_t`$ from neutral energy within the pseudo-rapidity range $`\eta =1.1`$$`2.3`$. To establish a calibration from LUCIFER II we first refer to their earlier Pb+Pb results  using a more central rapidity range $`\eta =2.1`$$`3.4`$, and including both electromagnetic (neutral) and hadronic calorimeters to estimate $`E_t`$. This comparison is shown in Fig(10) , and indicates that LUCIFER II, with standard parameters , provides a reasonable representation of the measurements. The small discrepancy between cascade and experimental endpoints, some $`1015\%`$, should be kept in mind when examining the NA50 charmonium data.

Figures (10) and (11) display the results of simulations for the two massive ion-ion collisions. The magnitudes use the calculated survival probabilities, normalised by the $`pp`$ or $`p+D`$ experiments. The rather low $`E_t`$ value at which the measured J/$`\psi `$ suppression becomes pronounced more or less obtains in the simulation, and the low level of J/$`\psi `$’s for higher $`E_t`$ is reproduced. The theoretical errors shown are only indicative of the monte-carlo simulation and given the normalisation to Drell-Yan ratios for nucleon-nucleon should include some further systematic normalisation error. Appropriate integrals of the $`E_t`$ plots are, however, consistent with the minimum bias results in Figure (6) for both $`S+U`$ and $`Pb+Pb`$.

The results reinforce the perception already created by the comparison with the minimum bias data. The hadronic two-step cascade is capable of describing the charmonium yields for J/$`\psi `$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ as well. The beginning of strong suppression in J/$`\psi `$ at close to peripheral collisions, i. e. at low $`E_t`$, is a reflection of the role the heavier charmonium states play. The scale used for central $`S+U`$ is just that obtained from the cascade. For $`Pb+Pb`$, where NA50 used a more peripheral cut to obtain the neutral energy the theoretical cutoff is close to $`125`$ GeV, somewhat lower than say that quoted by the experiment , and a scaling factor of $`1.25`$ has been applied to the theoretical transverse energy, justified by subsquent discussions with the experimentalists . The original theoretical scale is, however, closer to that inferred from the NA49 measurements Reference . Of this factor of $`1.25`$, some $`1015\%`$ is, as we indicated, attributable to differences in the NA49 $`E_t`$ calculated and measured scales.

## 5 Conclusions

It appears that a conventional hadronic explanation of the minimum bias and central J/$`\psi `$ and $`\psi ^{}`$ suppression in A+B collisions is possible. This is accomplished here with a cascade, not specially tuned for the charmonium sector alone, but consistent with soft energy loss processes, both meson and proton spectra, and Drell-Yan data. There are parameters in the model, notably the meson formation time, the generic meson decay constant, and certainly the elements of the charmonium reaction matrix. However, we have not made use of all of this freedom in obtaining the main results. Indeed, the only parameter not constrained by independent information is the charmonium breakup cross-section on mesons. The variation of suppression probability for a reasonable range of this variable, as seen in Figure (8), is very small.

Some authors  suggest theoretically that the J/$`\psi `$ total cross-section on mesons must be drastically smaller than the $`4`$ mb we use for breakup, but this argument is disputed by others , and it seems unlikely. In any case breakup on mesons occurs at quite high relative energies where the very small cross-sections suggested by these authors, even if valid, would surely not obtain. Our direct experimental knowledge of the total and partial cross-sections, including any energy dependence, for J/$`\psi `$ or other charmonium mesons on the lower mass mesons is of course very limited.

What then has been learned about excited, dense, nuclear matter from the reduction in J/$`\psi `$’s? Our earlier calculations  for a broader range of processes, suggested that very high baryonic and mesonic energy densities were achieved in central Pb+Pb interactions, $`\rho _B4`$$`5`$ GeV/(fm)<sup>3</sup> and $`\rho _E3`$ GeV/(fm)<sup>3</sup> respectively and that these densities persist for quite long times $`\tau 3`$$`5`$ fm/c, in the c.m. frame. Thus appropriate conditions for possible ‘plasma’ creation exist in the most massive collision. This matter density has been sensed in the theoretical comover breakup of charmonium, both J/$`\psi `$ and $`\psi ^{}`$, more so for Pb+Pb than for S+U. But should our model stand the test of time, and it has explained a good portion of existing data at the SPS, then the case for a non-conventional explanation is hard to establish as yet. It is always of course possible that partons actually are playing a less passive role than portrayed by hadronic modeling and that especially high gluon densities are achieved in the initial phase. Our simulations do not rule out the creation of some form of partonic matter in ion collisions at SPS energies. They only make the necessity thereof less compelling. A microscopic, non-hadronic treatment of the internal strusture of the charmonium states might alter the entire picture, and may be necessary at higher energies.

We are grateful to Louis Kluberg for several enlightening discussions. This manuscript has been authored under US DOE grants NO. DE-FG02-93ER407688 and DE-AC02-76CH00016.