Nuclear modification factors of strange mesons measured by PHENIX

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of strange meson nuclear modification factors across various collision systems at RHIC, providing insights into quark-gluon plasma properties and strangeness production mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents the latest PHENIX measurements of strange meson nuclear modification factors in diverse collision systems, exploring flavor dependence and strangeness enhancement.

Findings

High-$p_T$ light hadron production is independent of quark content.

Coalescence may explain strangeness and baryon enhancement at moderate $p_T$.

Results support understanding of QGP properties and particle production mechanisms.

Abstract

The question of the existence and properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) nowadays are the subject of detailed systematic study. Particles that contain strange quarks can be considered as a great tool to study flavor dependence of the parton energy loss in the QGP and strangeness enhancement. In this paper, we present the most recent PHENIX results on nuclear modification factors of $K^{\pm}$, $K^{*0}$, $\phi$ mesons as a function of $p_T$ and the number of participants in $p$+$p$, $p$+Al, $^3$He+Au, Cu+Cu, Cu+Au, Au+Au, and U+U collisions at top RHIC energies. The light hadron production at high-$p_T$ is apparently independent on quark content. The coalescence mechanism might be an answer for strangeness and baryon enhancement at moderate $p_T$.