D-sJ(2317) meson production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions RID A-2398-2009

Abstract

Production of D-sJ(2317) mesons in relativistic heavy ion collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is studied. Using the quark coalescence model, we first determine the initial number of D-sJ(2317) mesons produced during hadronization of created quark-gluon plasma. The predicted D-sJ(2317) abundance depends sensitively on the quark structure of the D-sJ(2317) meson. An order-of-magnitude larger yield is obtained for a conventional two-quark than for an exotic four-quark D-sJ(2317) meson. To include the hadronic effect on the D-sJ(2317) meson yield requires the absorption cross sections of the D-sJ(2317) meson by pions, rho mesons, anti-kaons, and vector anti-kaons, which we have evaluated in a phenomenological model. Taking into consideration the absorption and production of D-sJ(2317) mesons during the hadronic stage of heavy ion collisions via a kinetic model, we find that the final yield of D-sJ(2317) mesons remains sensitive to its initial number produced from the quark-gluon plasma, providing thus the possibility of studying the quark structure of the D-sJ(2317) meson and its production mechanism in relativistic heavy ion collisions.