A Model of Charmonium Absorption by Light Mesons

Abstract

We calculate the cross sections for dissociation of $J/\psi$ by pions and $\rho$-mesons within the framework of a meson exchange model. We find that these cross sections are small at center-of-mass energies less than 1 GeV above threshold, and that dissociation rates are less than 0.01 $c$/fm in a thermal meson gas at temperatures where such a description makes sense.

Comments: REVTEX, epsfig, 3 PostScript figures