String Breaking and Quarkonium Dissociation at Finite Temperatures

Recent lattice studies of string breaking in QCD with dynamical quarks determine the in-medium temperature dependence of the heavy quark potential. Comparing this to the binding energies of different quarkonium states, we check if these can decay into open charm/beauty in a confined hadronic medium. Our studies indicate in particular that the chi_c and the psi dissociate into open charm below the deconfinement point