J/ψ meson

J/psi melting

In a hot QCDmedium, when the temperature is raised well beyond the Hagedorn temperature, the J/ψ and its excitations are expected to melt. This is one of the predicted signals of the formation of the quark–gluon plasma. Heavy-ion experiments at CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron and at BNL's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have studied this phenomenon without a conclusive outcome as of 2009. This is due to the requirement that the disappearance of J/ψ mesons is evaluated with respect to the baseline provided by the total production of all charm quark-containing subatomic particles, and because it is widely expected that some J/ψ are produced and/or destroyed at time of QGPhadronization. Thus, there is uncertainty in the prevailing conditions at the initial collisions.