Charmonium Composition and Nuclear Suppression

We study charmonium production in hadron-nucleus collisions through the intermediate next-to-leading Fock space component $|(\bar{c}c)_8 g>$, formed by a colour octet $\bar{c}c$ pair and a gluon. We estimate the size of this state and show that its interaction with nucleons accounts for the observed charmonium suppression in nuclear interactions.