Bound state of heavy quarkonium without the QGP medium. (IMAGE)
Caption
Heavy quarkonium is a bound state formed by a heavy quark and its corresponding antiquark of the same flavor under the strong interaction, such as the J/ψ particle, which consists of a charm quark and an anticharm quark, known as charmonium. With relatively large masses, heavy quarkonia are produced during the initial hard scattering processes in heavy-ion collisions—prior to the formation of the QGP medium. As a result, when heavy quarkonia traverse the QGP medium, they carry information about the QGP, making them ideal probes for investigating the properties of the medium. In relativistic heavy-ion collisions, when J/ψ particles pass through the QGP medium, the color screening effect of the medium causes the bound state to dissociate, resulting in free charm quarks and anticharm quarks.
Credit
Zhou Kai
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CC BY-NC