Measurement of the relative yields of $\ddot{I}ˆ(2S)$ to $\ddot{I}ˆ(1S)$ mesons produced at forward and backward rapidity in $p$$+$$p$, $p$$+$Al, $p$$+$Au, and ${}^3$He$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV

Abstract

The PHENIX Collaboration has measured the ratio of the yields of $\ddot{I}ˆ(2S)$ to $\ddot{I}ˆ(1S)$ mesons produced in $p$$+$$p$, $p$$+$Al, $p$$+$Au, and ${}^3$He$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV over the forward and backward rapidity intervals $1.2<|y|<2.2$. We find that the ratio in $p$$+$$p$ collisions is consistent with measurements at other collision energies. In collisions with nuclei, we find that in the forward ($p$-going or ${}^3$He-going) direction, the relative yield of $\ddot{I}ˆ(2S)$ mesons to $\ddot{I}ˆ(1S)$ mesons is consistent with the value measured in \pp collisions. However, in the backward (nucleus-going) direction, the $\ddot{I}ˆ(2S)$ is preferentially suppressed by a factor of $\sim$2. This suppression is attributed in some models to breakup of the weakly-bound $\ddot{I}ˆ(2S)$ through final state interactions with comoving particles, which have a higher density in the nucleus-going direction. These breakup effects may compete with color screening in a deconfined quark-gluon plasma to produce sequential suppression of excited quarkonia states.

364 authors, 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, 2014,15 data. v2 is version accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html