Heavy Quarkonium Dissociation Cross Sections in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Many of the hadron-hadron cross sections required for the study of the dynamics of matter produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions can be calculated using the quark-interchange model. Here we evaluate the low-energy dissociation cross sections of J/ψ, ψ′, χ, Υ, and Υ′ in collision with π, ρ, and K, which are important for the interpretation of heavy-quarkonium suppression as a signature for the quark gluon plasma. These comover dissociation processes also contribute to heavy-quarkonium suppression, and must be understood and incorporated in simulations of heavy-ion collisions before QGP formation can be established through this signature.