2001/01/29 by NA50 Collaboration
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ex/0101052
The NA38 and NA50 experiments at the CERN SPS have measured charmonium production in different colliding systems with the aim of observing a phase transition from ordinary hadronic matter towards a state in which quarks and gluons are deconfined (Quark Gluon Plasma, QGP). In fact it was predicted that the J/psi yield should be suppressed in deconfined matter. The analysis of the data collected by the NA50 experiment with Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon shows that the J/psi is anomalously suppressed in central collisions and the observed pattern can be considered as a strong indication for QGP production.