Speaker
Description
A measurement of the suppression of J/ψ and ψ’ production in high-energy heavy ion interactions has been suggested to be an important probe in identifying the presence and properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP). However, a similar quarkonium production depletion observed in p-A interactions at lower energies makes it pivotal to understand the effects of cold nuclear matter (CNM). By doing so, it will be possible to not only kinematically isolate the sources of this suppression but also better constrain presumed QGP signatures. We perform measurements seeking to obtain a better quantitative understanding of this suppression due to CNM effects in the E906/SeaQuest experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a fixed-target experiment producing Drell-Yan, J/ψ and ψ’ signals from a 120-GeV proton beam colliding with protons and different heavy nuclear targets. In this poster, we will discuss QGP and CNM effects on charmonium production in more detail and report the status of the analysis at SeaQuest as well as results from E-866, SeaQuest’s predecessor with an 800-GeV incident proton beam.
