Quasielastic production of J / ψ mesons has been measured in muon interactions with hydrogen, deuterium, carbon and tin targets at incident muon energies of 200 and 280 GeV. The hydrogen and deuterium data were used to study the transverse momentum distribution of the J / ψ 's. These data have been analysed together with previously published ϱ 0 data in the framework of the vector meson dominance model. The radii of the Jψ and the ϱ 0 as well as the total J / ψ - N and ϱ 0 - N cross sections were deduced. From the tin and carbon data the ratio of the quasielastic J / ψ production cross sections, R qe (Sn/C), has been extracted and found to be less than unity. In the Glauber approach this suppression can be related to the J / ψ absorption probability in nuclei. The suppression is also compared to those predicted by various colour transparency models.
