Towards quarkonium formation time determination

Abstract

We propose a parametrization of the nuclear absorption mechanism relying on the proper time spent by cc bound states travelling in nuclear matter. Our approach could lead to the extraction of charmonium formation time. It is based on a large amount of proton-nucleus data, from nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies √ s N N = 27 GeV to √ s N N = 5.02 TeV, collected in the past 30 years, and for which the main effect on charmonium production must be its absorption by the nuclear matter it crosses.