Anisotropic J/Ψ suppression in nuclear collisions -: art. no. 044902

The nuclear overlap zone in noncentral relativistic heavy-ion collisions is azimuthally very asymmetric. By varying the angle between the axes of deformation and the transverse direction of the pair momenta, the suppression of J/Psi and Psi' will oscillate in a characteristic way. Whereas the average suppression is mostly sensitive to the early and high density stages of the collision, the amplitude is more sensitive to the late stages. This effect provides additional information on the J/Psi suppression mechanisms such as direct absorption on participating nucleons, comover absorption or formation of a quark-gluon plasma. The behavior-of the average J/Psi suppression and its amplitude with centrality of the collisions is discussed for Super Proton Synchrotron, Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider, and Large Hadron Collider energies with and without a phase transition. [S0556-2813(99)05009-8].