Observation of modified hadronization in relativistic Au+Au collisions: a promising signature for deconfined quark-gluon matter

Abstract

Measurements of identified particles from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on nuclear modification, baryon-to-meson ratios, and elliptic flow at intermediate transverse momentum ($1.5<p_T<5$ GeV/c). Possible connections between (1) these measurements, (2) the running coupling for static quark anti-quark pairs at finite temperature, and (3) the creation of a deconfined quark-gluon phase are presented. Modifications to hadronization in Au+Au collisions are proposed as a likely signature for the creation of deconfined colored matter.

8 pages, 5 figures, invited talk at the Strange Quark Matter 2004 conference, Cape Town, South Africa

References in corpus (4)

• Static quark anti-quark free energy and the running coupling at finite temperature
• Resonance decay effects on anisotropy parameters
• Highlights from STAR
• Elliptic flow of multi-strange baryons Xi and Omega in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Central-to-peripheral nuclear modification factors in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 17.3 GeV
• Identified Particle Spectra and Jet Interactions with the Medium
• Jet multiplicities as the QGP thermometer
• Evidence from Identified Particles for Active Quark and Gluon Degrees of Freedom