Quarkonium Production and Color Deconfinement in Nuclear Collisions

Abstract

The suppression of quarkonium production in nucleus-nucleus collisions was originally proposed as a signal of colour deconfinement. Strong ``anomalous" J/\psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions has been reported at this Conference by the NA50 Collaboration. Is this suppression really anomalous? Can we conclude that the quark-gluon plasma is already discovered? What has to be done next? I address these questions basing on the current theoretical understanding of quarkonium production and new precise experimental information.

Comments: 16 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures, uses epsf.tex, espcrc1.sty (included); Invited talk given at the "Quark Matter 96" Conference, Heidelberg May 1996; to appear in the Proceedings