Quarkonium measurements at forward rapidity with ALICE at the LHC

Abstract

Heavy quarks are produced at the first instant of a nucleus--nucleus collision and therefore are an important tool to study the subsequent high energy-density medium formed in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. A series of experimental efforts for understanding the properties of the Quark--Gluon Plasma (QGP), a medium consisting of a deconfined state of quarks and gluons, are based on measuring the bound states of heavy quark--anti-quark pairs known as quarkonia. However, the medium modification of heavy-flavour hadron production includes also the contribution of Cold Nuclear Matter (CNM) effects such as shadowing or nuclear breakup in addition to the QGP effects. Proton--nucleus collisions, where no QGP is expected, are used to measure CNM effects on quarkonium production. Finally, quarkonium measurements in proton--proton collisions are used as reference for both heavy-ion and proton-ion collisions. ALICE measurements of quarkonia at forward rapidity for various energies and colliding systems (pp, p--Pb, Pb--Pb and Xe--Xe) during the LHC Run 1 and Run 2 periods will be discussed.