J/ψ transverse momentum distribution in high energy nuclear collisions

The transverse momentum (p(t)) dependence of J/psi production in heavy ion collisions is investigated in a transport model with both initial production and continuous regeneration of charmonia. The competition between the two production mechanisms results in a pt suppression in central collisions, the gluon multi-scattering in the initial stage leads to a high p, enhancement, and the regeneration populates J/psi s at low p, region and induces a minimum in R-AA(p(t)). These three phenomena are indeed observed in both 200 GeV Cu + Cu and Au + Au collisions at RHIC energy. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.