Charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions
R. Rapp, D. Blaschke, P. Crochet
TL;DR
Charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions are analyzed through suppression mechanisms in a hot QGP and regeneration in the medium. The paper surveys the theoretical and phenomenological status, focusing on anomalous suppression and regeneration, and integrates lattice QCD results for in-medium quarkonium properties with effective potentials, inelastic rates, and insights from electromagnetic plasmas. A thermodynamic Green function (T-matrix) framework is emphasized as a unifying approach to embed microscopic quarkonium physics into a kinetic description of suppression and regeneration. Applications to SPS, RHIC, and LHC are discussed, and the authors outline future experimental opportunities at FAIR, RHIC-II, and LHC to map quarkonium behavior across a wide energy range.
Abstract
We review the present status in the theoretical and phenomenological understanding of charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions. We start by recapitulating the basic notion of "anomalous quarkonium suppression" in heavy-ion collisions and its recent amendments involving regeneration reactions. We then survey in some detail concepts and ingredients needed for a comprehensive approach to utilize heavy quarkonia as a probe of hot and dense matter. The theoretical discussion encompasses recent lattice QCD computations of quarkonium properties in the Quark-Gluon Plasma, their interpretations using effective potential models, inelastic rate calculations and insights from analyses of electromagnetic plasmas. We illustrate the powerful techniques of thermodynamic Green functions (T-matrices) to provide a general framework for implementing microscopic properties of heavy quarkonia into a kinetic theory of suppression and regeneration reactions. The theoretical concepts are tested in applications to heavy-ion reactions at SPS, RHIC and LHC. We outline perspectives for future experiments on charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions over a large range in energy (FAIR, RHIC-II and LHC). These are expected to provide key insights into hadronic matter under extreme conditions using quarkonium observables.