Charmonium Production off Nuclei: from SPS to RHIC

Abstract

Physics of charmonium suppression in nuclear collisions drastically changes between the energies of SPS and RHIC. Mechanisms suppressing charmonia at SPS are reviewed, neither of which is important at RHIC. On the other hand, coherence, or shadowing of c-quarks and gluons barely seen at SPS, become a dominant effect at RHIC providing a much stronger suppression. A onset of coherence at Fermilab energies explains the observed cross section ratio steeply falling at large Feynman x_F. In nuclear collisions variation of charmonium suppression with x_F suggests a sensitive probe for QGP.