Work

Charmonium production in p+A collisions at SPS and FAIR energies

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We employ the Parton–Hadron–String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach to investigate the influence of baryon-rich matter on charmonium production and dissociation. The Remler coalescence formalism is implemented to dynamically model charmonium formation from charm–anticharm pairs. As a validation step, the formalism is first benchmarked against experimental data from elementary p+p collisions and then extended to p+A systems to extract the effective nuclear absorption cross section of charmonium. This extracted cross section can subsequently be applied in A+A collisions to quantify medium-induced effects. Our results demonstrate that the Remler formalism provides a quantitatively consistent description of charmonium production in p+p and p+A collisions at SPS energies. The approach is then extrapolated to GSI/FAIR energies, where predictions for charmonium yields and survival probabilities are presented. These findings highlight the relevance of the Remler formalism as a dynamical framework for studying heavy-quark bound-state formation in baryon-rich matter and offer theoretical guidance for future experimental programs at SPS, FAIR and NICA aimed at mapping the QCD phase structure.

Source: Journal of subatomic particles and cosmology.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jspc.2026.100496

Authors: Taesoo Song, Jiaxing Zhao, Joerg Aichelin, Elena Bratkovskaya