Cross Sections for the Dissociation of J/psi and psi' by pi and rho at low energies

Using the quark-interchange model of Barnes and Swanson, we evaluate the dissociation cross sections for $J\mathrm{/}\psi$ and ${\psi }^{\mathrm{\prime }}$ by $\pi$ and $\rho$ at low collision energies. In collisions with $\pi$ mesons near threshold the $\pi + J/\psi$dissociationcrosssectionispredictedtobesmall,butthe$\pi +\psi’$ cross section is found to be quite large, in qualitative agreement with experimental data on $J\mathrm{/}\psi$ and ${\psi }^{\mathrm{\prime }}$ production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The $\rho +J\mathrm{/}\psi$ and $\rho +{\psi }^{\mathrm{\prime }}$ dissociation cross sections are both predicted to be large numerically and are divergent near threshold. These $\rho +J\mathrm{/}\psi$ and $\rho +{\psi }^{\mathrm{\prime }}$ cross sections show considerable sensitivity to the mass of the $\rho$ meson if it is off energy shell.