Centrality dependence of the high (PT) charged hadron suppression in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN)=130 GeV

Abstract

<p>PHENIX has measured the centrality dependence of charged hadron p(T) spectra from Au + Au collisions at root(s)NN = 130 GeV The truncated mean p(T) decreases with centrality for p(T) > 2 GeV/c, indicating an apparent reduction of the contribution from hard scattering to high p(T) hadron production. For central collisions the yield at high p(T) is shown to be suppressed compared to binary nucleon-nucleon collision scaling of p + p, data. This suppression is monotonically increasing with centrality, but most of the change occurs below 30% centrality, i.e., for collisions with less than similar to 140 participating nucleons. The observed p(T) and centrality dependence is consistent with the particle production predicted by models including hard scattering and subsequent energy loss of the scattered partons in the dense matter created in the collisions.</p>