Quarkonium measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions with ALICE

Abstract

Quarkonia, i.e. bound states of b (b) over bar and c (c) over bar quarks, are powerful observables to study the properties of nuclear matter under extreme conditions. The formation of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), which is predicted by lattice QCD calculations at high temperatures as reached at the LHC energies, has a strong influence on the production and behavior of quarkonia. The latest ALICE results on bottomonium and charmonium production in nucleus-nucleus collisions are presented. This includes measurements of the gamma(1S) and gamma(2S) nuclear modification factor (R-AA) at forward rapidity and the J/psi R-AA and v(2) as a function of centrality, P-T and rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV. Also, first results from J/psi measurements in Xe-Xe collisions at root S-NN = 5.44 TeV are presented. Further on, the experimental results are compared to various calculations from theoretical models.