Cross sections for J ψ,ψ′ and Drell-Yan production in Pb+Pb collisions at 158×A GeV/c are presented and compared with results obtained by the NA38 and NA51 collaborations. The Pb+Pb data have been collected by the NA50 collaboration using the NA38 dimuon spectrometer. The Drell-Yan mechanism is found to scale as (A projectile · B target ) in p+B target and A projectile + B target collisions including Pb+Pb collisions. Regarding J ψ , an anomalous suppression is observed in Pb+Pb collisions with respect to the suppression observed in p+B target , O+B target and S+U collisions. The cross section ratios ψ′ ( J ψ ) are similar in Pb+Pb and S+U collisions.
We report a new measurement of J/psi, psi' and Drell-Yan cross-sections, in the kinematical domain $-0.425<y_{\rm cm}<0.575$ and $-0.5<\cos\theta_{\rm CS}<0.5$, performed at the CERN-SPS using 400 GeV/c incident protons on Be, Al, Cu, Ag, W and Pb targets. The dependence of the charmonia production cross-sections on the size of the target nucleus allows to quantify the so-called normal nuclear absorption. In the framework of the Glauber model, this new measurement is combined with results previously obtained with the same apparatus, under different experimental conditions, and leads to a precise determination of the J/psi and psi' absorption cross-sections in the surrounding nuclear matter.