Identified particle production at high transverse momentum in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC

Abstract

Experimental results for identified hadron spectra in AA collisions at RHIC are reviewed. Jet suppression in central AuAu collisions at 200 GeV is seen in leading meson and baryon spectra at high p_t. Enhanced baryon production at intermediate p_T (2<p_t<5 GeV/c) is related to quark content but not its mass.In d+Au collisions Cronin enhancement is observed with larger magnitude for baryons than for mesons, but this difference can not explain the baryon-to-meson ratio in Au+Au collisions. In Au+Au the observations at 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV are very similar, but smaller suppresion of the leading particles is seen at low beam energy, which is evidence for a smooth beam energy dependence of the effect. Near and away side jets seen in two-particle correlations are very similar for the leading baryons and mesons.