Abstract
In this work we calculate the dissociation of heavy mesons such as the upsilon due to absorption of a thermal gluon in a quark-gluon plasma. We also calculate the dissociation of heavy mesons due to the effect of color charge screening. The lifetime of quarkonium moving with velocity v through a quark-gluon plasma at temperature T is computed. An explicit, configuration-space potential is found for the screened interaction between the quarks constituting the meson. This potential is non-spherical, but axially symmetric about the direction of v. We solve the Schrödinger equation for the relative motion of the quarks in this potential, and use the bound-state wavefunction as the initial state for the dissociation of the meson. The meson lifetime is thus determined as a function of v and T, and conclusions are drawn concerning the possibility of detection of the meson in a high-energy heavy-nucleus collision.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 52-60 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | High Energy Density Physics |
Volume | 1 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2005 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Part of this work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC03-76SF00098, and grant DE-FG02-87ER40328.
Keywords
- High density
- High-energy physics
- QCD
- Quantum chromodynamics
- Quark-gluon plasma