Heavy Ion Tea

Studying QCD Matter at RHIC with Strange Particles
Jana Bielcikova (Yale University)

Abstract: The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory is dedicated to the production and study of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density formed in nuclear collisions. Nuclear collisions at high energy are expected to produce conditions sufficient for the formation of a new state of matter, the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). It is believed that the early Universe has consisted of QGP up to a few microseconds after the Big Bang. The wealth of data collected by the STAR experiment in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions offers the possibility to investigate in detail particle production in the intermediate and high p_T regime at RHIC. I will discuss the nuclear modification factors of strange baryons and mesons as well as the ratios of the strange particle yields up to high p_T in order to investigate the range of anomalous baryon production. The medium modification of the fragmentation process will be further explored by studying azimuthal and pseudo-rapidity correlations of strange baryons and mesons. The results will be compared to fragmentation and recombination models.