Suppressed pi(0) production at large transverse momentum in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Aug 15;91(7):072301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.072301. Epub 2003 Aug 13.

Abstract

Transverse momentum spectra of neutral pions in the range 1<p(T)<10 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity by the PHENIX experiment at BNL RHIC in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=200 GeV. The pi(0) multiplicity in central reactions is significantly below the yields measured at the same sqrt[s(NN)] in peripheral Au+Au and p+p reactions scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. For the most central bin, the suppression factor is approximately 2.5 at p(T)=2 GeV/c and increases to approximately 4-5 at p(T) approximately 4 GeV/c. At larger p(T), the suppression remains constant within errors. The deficit is already apparent in semiperipheral reactions and increases smoothly with centrality.