Jet quenching and thep¯≳π−anomaly in heavy ion collisions at relativistic energies

Abstract

PHENIX data on Au+Au at root(s)_= 130 AGeV suggest that p-bar yields may exceed pi- at high p_T > 2 GeV/c. We propose that jet quenching in central collisions suppresses the hard PQCD component of the spectra in central A+A reactions, thereby exposing a novel component of baryon dynamics that we attribute to (gluonic) baryon junctions. We predict that the observed p-bar >= pi- and the p > pi+ anomaly at p_T ~ 2 GeV/c is limited to a finite p_T window that decreases with increasing impact parameter.