Strange hadron production in a quark combination model in Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies

Abstract

We apply a quark combination model to study yield densities and transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) spectra of strange (anti-)hadrons at mid-rapidity in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39 and 200 GeV. We show that experimental data for $p_{T}$ spectra of (anti-)hadrons in these collisions can be systematically described by the equal velocity combination of constituent quarks and antiquarks at hadronization. We obtain $p_{T}$ spectra of quarks and antiquarks at hadronization and study their collision energy dependence. We also reproduce the yield densities of hadrons and anti-hadrons. In particular, we demonstrate that yield ratios of anti-hadrons to hadrons $K^{-}/K^{+}$, $\bar{p}/p$, $\bar{\Lambda}/\Lambda$, $\bar{\Xi}^{+}/\Xi^{-}$ and $\bar{\Omega}^{+}/\Omega^{-}$ simply correlate with each other and their experimental data except $\bar{\Omega}^{+}/\Omega^{-}$ at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 7.7 GeV are systematically described by the model. These results suggest that the equal velocity combination mechanism for quarks and antiquarks at hadronization plays an important role in Au+Au collisions at low RHIC energies ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}\geq$ 11.5 GeV).