Scaling behavior at high p_T and the p/pi ratio

Abstract

We first show that the pions produced at high $p_T$ in heavy-ion collisions over a wide range of high energies exhibit a scaling behavior when the distributions are plotted in terms of a scaling variable. We then use the recombination model to calculate the scaling quark distribution just before hadronization. From the quark distribution it is then possible to calculate the proton distribution at high $p_T$, also in the framework of the recombination model. The resultant $p/\pi$ ratio exceeds one in the intermediate $p_T$ region where data exist, but the scaling result for the proton distribution is not reliable unless $p_T$ is high enough to be insensitive to the scale-breaking mass effects.