Statistical hadronization of charm: from FAIR to the LHC

Abstract

We discuss the production of charmonium in nuclear collisions within the framework of the statistical hadronization model. We demonstrate that the model reproduces very well the availble data at RHIC. We provide predictions for the LHC energy where, dependently on the charm production cross section, a dramatically different behaviour of charmonium production as a function of centrality might be expected. We extend our predictions for charm production towards the threshold energies, where charm is expected to be measured at the future FAIR facility.