Charmonium Production at ELFE Energies

Abstract

I discuss issues related to charmonium production, in view of physics possibilities at a 15 ... 30 GeV continuous beam electron facility. High energy photo- and hadroproduction of heavy quarkonia presents several challenges to QCD models concerning cross sections, polarization and nuclear target dependence. Theoretical approaches based on color evaporation as well as on color singlet and color octet mechanisms have met with both successes and failures, indicating that charmonium production is a sensitive probe of color dynamics. Experiments close to charm kinematic threshold will be sensitive also to target substructure since only unusual, compact target configurations contribute. In particular, subthreshold production on nuclei should identify nuclear hot spots of high energy density. At low energies, charmonium will form inside the target nucleus, allowing a determination of c cbar bound state interactions in nuclear matter.