Nuclear modification of heavy quark fragmentation function and J/ψ production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, charm quark fragmentation is modified due to the melting of strings inside the high density partonic matter. D mesons produced in hadronization can further produce J/ψ particles. Using a multiphase transport model, we investigate the effect on the rapidity distribution of the produced J/ψ particles with two different charm quark fragmentation functions. It is shown that the J/ψ rapidity distribution is sensitive to the nuclear modification of charm quark fragmentation and thus is a good indicator of the onset of string melting and the production of deconfined partonic matter.