J/psi polarization at Tevatron and LHC: Nonrelativistic-QCD factorization at the crossroads

Abstract: We study the polarization observables of J/psi hadroproduction at next-to-leading order within the factorization formalism of nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics. We complete the present knowledge of the relativistic corrections by also providing the contribution due to the intermediate ^3P_J^{[8]} color-octet states at this order, which turns out to be quite significant. Exploiting the color-octet long-distance matrix elements previously extracted through a global fit to experimental data of unpolarized J/psi production, we provide theoretical predictions in the helicity and Collins-Soper frames and compare them with data taken by CDF at Fermilab Tevatron I and II and by ALICE at CERN LHC. The notorious CDF J/psi polarization anomaly familiar from leading-order analyses persists at the quantum level, while the situation looks promising for the LHC, which is bound to bring final clarification.