Bottomonium suppression at RHIC and LHC in an open quantum system approach

We present potential nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics (pNRQCD) predictions for bottomonium system (OQS) description of the reduced heavy-quark antiquark density matrix. Compared to prior OQS + pNRQCD studies we include the rapidity dependence of bottomonium production and evolution, allowing for a fully three-dimensional description of bottomonium trajectories in the quark-gluon plasma. The underlying formalism used to compute the ground and excited state survival probabilities is based on a Lindblad equation that is accurate to next-to-leading order (NLO) in the binding energy over temperature. For the background evolution, we make use of a 3 + 1D viscous hydrodynamics code which reproduces soft hadron observables at all three collision energies. We find good agreement between NLO OQS + pNRQCD predictions and data taken at LHC energies; however, at RHIC energies, there is tension with recent bottomonium suppression measurements by the STAR Collaboration.

Automated summary

We use pNRQCD to predict the reduced heavy-quark antiquark density matrix in the bottomonium system (OQS). Compared to previous studies, we consider the rapidity dependence and achieve a fully three-dimensional description of bottomonium trajectories in the quark-gluon plasma. Our findings show good agreement with LHC data, but there is tension with recent measurements at RHIC energies by the STAR Collaboration.