Bochum 2009 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Hadronen und Kerne

HK 25: Hadron Structure and Spectroscopy II

HK 25.6: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 15:15–15:30, H-ZO 30

Charmonium Interaction with Nuclear Matter — •Katalin Nikolics — Stefan Meyer Institute, Vienna, Austria

Understanding the charmonium interaction with nuclear matter is important for the description of the photo- and hadro-production of charmonium and charmed hadrons on nuclear targets as well as for diagnostics of hadronic final states in heavy-ion collisions. The suppression of charmonium production in heavy ion collisions is even proposed to be a signal for the formation of Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP). Investigating the absorption cross section of charmonium in nuclear matter should yield valuable information on this process.

The first excited state of charmonium, J/ψ, can easily be produced in antiproton-nucleus collisions which will be studied at the PANDA experiment. J/ψ can be identified via its leptonic decay channels. Its interaction with nucleons in the nuclear environment, in particular the J/ψ-nucleon dissociation cross section can be deduced from the measurement of its production as a function of the size of the target nucleus. Simulation studies including both the physics aspects of this process and the detector response to both signal and background are required in order to evaluate the scientific potential of the planned experiments.

This talk will give a brief introduction to the physics of the J/ψ interaction with nuclei and then present first results of simulation studies for the PANDA experiment.