Charmonium suppression in fixed target proton-nucleus collisions

Abstract

In this article, we perform a systematic investigation of the cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects, operative on charmonium ($J/ψ$, $ψ(2S)$) production, in fixed target proton-nucleus (p+A) collisions. Influence on charmonium production cross section due to the interplay of three different plausible CNM effects namely the initial-state parton energy loss, nuclear shadowing, and final-state absorption of the resonant states, are evaluated in detail. The available data on charmonium production in fixed target p+A collision experiments from SPS, Fermilab and HERA-B are examined for this purpose. The beam energy dependence of the observed $J/ψ$ production patterns are utilized to anticipate level of "normal" absorption in the upcoming proton induced collisions by the NA60+ experiment at CERN SPS and the CBM experiment at FAIR SIS100 accelerator facilities.