ALICE results on quarkonium production in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions

Abstract

The study of quarkonia, bound states of heavy (charm or bottom) quark-antiquark pairs such as the J/psi or the Upsilon?, provides insight into the earliest and hottest stages of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions where the formation of a Quark-Gluon Plasma is expected. High-precision data from proton-proton collisions represent an essential baseline for the measurement of nuclear modifications in nucleus-nucleus collisions and serve also as a crucial test for models of quarkonium hadroproduction. Another fundamental tool to understand the quarkonium production in nucleus-nucleus collisions is the the study of proton-nucleus interactions, which allows one to investigate cold nuclear matter effects, such as parton shadowing or gluon saturation. The ALICE detector provides excellent capabilities to study quarkonium production at the Large Hadron Collider at both central and forward rapidity. An overview on ALICE results on quarkonium production in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions is presented. Results are compared to theoretical model predictions.