Anisotropic J/Psi 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 defo rmation and the transverse direction of the pair momenta, the suppression o f J/Psi and Psi' will oscillate in a characteristic way. Whereas the averag e suppression is mostly sensitive to the early and high density stages of t he collision, the amplitude is more sensitive to the late stages. This effe ct provides additional information on the J/Psi suppression mechanisms such as direct absorption on participating nucleons, comover absorption or form ation of a quark-gluon plasma. The behavior-of the average J/Psi suppressio n and its amplitude with centrality of the collisions is discussed for Supe r Proton Synchrotron, Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider, and Large Hadron Col lider energies with and without a phase transition. [S0556-2813(99)05009-8] .