PHENIX Measurements of Light Hadron and Vector Meson Production at RHIC

Abstract

Measurements of light hadron production in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions provide essential insight into final-state effects arising from both hot and cold nuclear matter. They probe collective behavior, hadronization via recombination, and baryon and strangeness enhancement, while their system-size and centrality dependence constrain the role of initial-state geometry and nuclear parton distribution functions. In this talk, we present recent PHENIX measurements of identified charged hadrons ($\pi /K/p$) at midrapidity ($|y|<0.35$) and low-mass vector mesons, including $\omega$, $\rho$, and $\varphi$, at forward rapidity ($1.2<|y|<2.2$) in $p+p$, $p+$Al, $p/d{/}^3$He+Cu+Au, and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV, as well as U+U collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=193$ GeV. Tests of various empirical scaling behaviors, together with comparisons to previous measurements and theoretical model calculations, are discussed.

contribution to the 2026 QCD session of the 60th Rencontres de Moriond