Charmonium production in $p$Ne collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=68.5$ GeV

Abstract

The measurement of charmonium states produced in proton-neon ($p$Ne) collisions by the LHCb experiment in its fixed-target configuration is presented. The production of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ mesons is studied with a beam of 2.5 TeV protons colliding on gaseous neon targets at rest, corresponding to a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=68.5$ GeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $21.7\pm 1.4 $ nb$^{-1}$. The $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ hadrons are reconstructed in $\mu^+\mu^-$ final states. The $J/\psi$ production cross-section per target nucleon in the centre-of-mass rapidity range $y^{*}\in [-2.29, 0]$ is found to be $506 \pm 8 \pm 25 \textrm{ nb/nucleon}$. The $\psi(2S)$ to $J/\psi$ relative production rate is found to be $(1.67 \pm 0.27\pm 0.10)\%$ in good agreement with other measurements involving beam and target nuclei of similar sizes.