Study of J/ψ production and cold nuclear matter effects in p Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{{{s_{NN }}}} $ = 5 TeV

The production of J/ψ mesons with rapidity 1 . 5 < y < 4 . 0 or −5 . 0 < y < −2 . 5 and transverse momentum p T < 14 GeV/ c is studied with the LHCb detector in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy $ \sqrt{{{s_{NN }}}} $ = 5TeV. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed using the dimuon decay mode. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 1 . 6 nb −1 . For the first time the nuclear modification factor and forward-backward production ratio are determined separately for prompt J/ψ mesons and J/ψ from b -hadron decays. Clear suppression of prompt J/ψ production with respect to proton-proton collisions at large rapidity is observed, while the production of J/ψ from b -hadron decays is less suppressed. These results show good agreement with available theoretical predictions. The measurement shows that cold nuclear matter effects are important for interpretations of the related quark-gluon plasma signatures in heavy-ion collisions.