Escape of Superheated Upsilons from the Quark Gluon Plasma

Abstract

The properties of heavy quark systems change if they are placed in a medium other than the low energy vacuum. In a hot Quark Gluon Plasma $J/Ψ$ particles will melt and not exist as resonant states. $Υ$'s, however, because of their smaller size and the dominance of the Coulomb potential, will still form as $Q\bar Q$ bound states but their properties will shift. In particular the $Υ$ mass may be shifted upward by over 100 MeV. If such excited states manage to escape from the plasma as a superheated particle, they may serve as a diagnostic of the plasma in which they originated. We propose that such a scenario is possible and that hot $Υ$'s will form and escape, thereby providing us with crucial information about the Quark Gluon Plasma.