Coherence Effects in Charmonium Production off Nuclei : Consequences for J/\psi Suppression

Abstract

The probabilistic Glauber formula for nuclear absorption used in the literature is only valid at low energies and $x_+ \simeq 0$. Due to energy conservation, $\sigma_{abs}$ is replaced by an effective cross-section $\sigma_{abs} + x_+^{\gamma}$ ($\sigma_{c\bar{c}-N} - \sigma_{abs})$ which increases with $x_+$ and tends to the total $c\bar{c}-N$ cross-section $\sigma_{c\bar{c}-N}$. Experimental data can be described with $\sigma_{abs} \sim 4 \div 5$mb and $\sigma_{c\bar{c}-N} \sim 15 \div 20$mb. At high energies, due to the increase of the coherence length, this formula changes. The main change is the replacement of $\sigma_{abs}$ by $\sigma_{c\bar{c}-N}$ -- for all values of $x_+$, as $s \to \infty$. Thus, if $\sigma_{c\bar{c}-N} > \sigma_{abs}$ the $J/\psi$ suppression due to nuclear interaction will increase with energy.