Energy loss of charm quarks from J/ψ production incold nuclear matter

J/ψ suppression in p-A collisions is studied by considering the nuclear effects on parton distribution, energy loss of beam proton and the finial state energy loss of color octet cc. The leading-order computations for J/ψ production cross-section ratios R_W/Be(x_F) are presented and compared with the selected E866 experimental data with the cc remaining colored on its entire path in the medium. It is shown that the combination of the different nuclear effects accounts quite well for the observed J/ψ suppression in the experimental data. It is found that the J/ψ suppression on R_W/Be(x_F) from the initial state nuclear effects is more important than that induced by the energy loss of color octet cc in the large x_F region. Whether the cc pair energy loss is linear or quadratic with the path length is not determined. The obtained cc pair energy loss per unit path length α=2.78±0.81 GeV/fm, which indicates that the heavy quark in cold nuclear matter can lose more energy compared to the outgoing light quark.