Charm production in antiproton-nucleus collisions at the $J/\psi$ and the $\psi'$ thresholds

Abstract

We discuss the production of charmonium states in antiproton-nucleus collisions at the $\psi'$ threshold. It is explained that measurements in $\bar p A$ collisions will allow to get new information about the strengths of the inelastic $J/\psi N, \psi'N$ interaction, on the production of $\Lambda_c$ and $\bar{D}$ in charmonium-nucleon interactions and for the first time about nondiagonal transitions $\psi' N\to J/\psi N$. The inelastic $J/\psi$-nucleon cross section is extracted from the comparison of hadron-nucleus collisions with hadron-nucleon collisions. We extract the total $J/\psi$ nucleon cross section from photon-nucleon collisions by accounting for the color transparency phenomenon within the frame of the GVDM (Generalized Vector meson Dominance Model). We evaluate also within the GVDM the inelastic $\psi'$-nucleon cross section as well as the cross section for the nondiagonal transitions. Predictions for the ratio of $J/\psi$ to $\psi'$ yields in antiproton-nucleus scatterings close to the threshold of $\psi'$ production for different nuclear targets are presented.