Abstract

The thermal evolution of the hadronic parameters of charmonium in the vector channel, i.e. the J/? resonance mass, coupling (leptonic decay constant), total width, and continuum threshold are analyzed in the framework of thermal Hilbert moment QCD sum rules. The continuum threshold s 0 has the same behavior as in all other hadronic channels, i.e. it decreases with increasing temperature until the PQCD threshold s 0=4m 2 Q is reached at T?1.22T c (m Q is the charm quark mass). The other hadronic parameters behave in a very different way from those of light-light and heavy-light quark systems. The J/? mass is essentially constant in a wide range of temperatures, while the total width grows with temperature up to T?1.04T c beyond which it decreases sharply with increasing T. The resonance coupling is also initially constant beginning to increase monotonically around T?T c. This behavior of the total width and of the leptonic decay constant is a strong indication that the J/? resonance might survive beyond the critical temperature for deconfinement, in agreement with some recent lattice QCD results. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.fThermal behavior of.