Polarizations of J/psi and psi(2S) Mesons Produced in ppbar Collisions at 1.96 TeV

We have measured the polarizations of $\text{jpsi}$ and $\text{psiprime}$ mesons as functions of their transverse momentum $\text{pt}$ when they are produced promptly in the rapidity range $\mathrm{\mid }y\mathrm{\mid }<0.6$ with $\text{pt}\ge 5\text{pgev}$. The analysis is performed using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of about $800\text{ipb}$ collected by the CDF II detector. For both vector mesons, we find that the polarizations become increasingly longitudinal as $\text{pt}$ increases from 5 to $30\text{pgev}$. These results are compared to the predictions of nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics and other contemporary models. The effective polarizations of $\text{jpsi}$ and $\text{psiprime}$ mesons from $B$-hadron decays are also reported.