Production of strange particles at intermediate p T at RHIC

The recombination model is applied to the production of K, φ, Λ and Ω at all pT in central Au+Au collisions. The thermal-shower component of the recombination is found to be important for K and Λ, but not for φ and Ω in the intermediate to high pT region. The normalization and inverse slope of the thermal partons in the strange sector are determined by fitting the low-pT data. The peak in the Λ/K ratio is shown to rise to nearly 2. The yields for φ and Ω are suppressed and the corresponding inverse slope for thermal s quark is higher. The contribution from shower s quarks is found to be unimportant for pT of φ and Ω up to 8 GeV/c. We give reasons on the basis of the pT dependence that φ cannot be formed by means of K +K− coalescence. Our result leads us to predict a rather spectacular feature in events where φ or Ω are used as trigger with pT > 3 GeV/c: there are no assoiciated particles at any azimuthal angle, none that can be distinguished from background.