The Role of Produced Hadrons in J/psi Suppression

Hadrons produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions can suppress the production of J/psi and other charmonium states by charmonium spontaneous dissociation as the hot hadronic environment alters the interaction between the charm quark and charm antiquark. Furthermore, hadrons can thermalize a charmonium to excite it to higher charmonium states which subsequently dissociate spontaneously. They can also collide with a charmonium to lead to its prompt dissociation into an open charm pair.