J/ψ production in a gluon plasma produced in Au–Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV Original Research Article

Centrality dependence of J/ψ production in Au–Au collisions at View the MathML source is studied using the Glauber model plus the kinetic formation model. Initial J/ψ production and destruction by incoming nucleons are described by the Glauber model. J/ψ-charm equilibration in the gluon plasma is described by the kinetic formation model. We explore the possibility of J/ψ suppression suggested by the recent PHENIX data. We show that the J/ψ yield monotonically decreases with increasing centrality in the kinetic formation model when the charm mass is smaller than a critical mass. The final J/ψ yield is between the value after the Glauber suppression and the dynamical equilibrium value. This underscores the importance of both J/ψ production from d–Au collisions, which is essential in determining the Glauber suppression, and high statistics Au–Au data, which can further constrain final state J/ψ-charm equilibration.