Proton-Proton Spin Correlations at Charm Threshold and Quarkonium Bound to Nuclei

Abstract

The anomalous behavior of the spin-spin correlation at large momentum transfer in pp elastic scattering is described in terms of the degrees of freedom associated with the onset of the charm threshold. A non-perturbative analysis based on the symmetries of QCD is used to extract the relevant dynamics of the charmonium-proton interaction. The enhancement to pp amplitudes and their phase follow from analyticity and unitarity, giving a plausible explanation of the spin anomaly. The interaction between charmonium and light quarks in nuclei may form a distinct kind of nuclear matter, nuclear bound quarkonium.