Charged hadron transverse momentum distributions in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV

We present transverse momentum distributions of charged hadrons produced in Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The spectra were measured for transverse momenta pT from 0.25 to 4.5 GeV/c in a pseudorapidity range of 0.2<η<1.4. The evolution of the spectra is studied as a function of collision centrality, from 65 to 344 participating nucleons. The results are compared to data from proton–antiproton collisions and Au+Au collisions at lower RHIC energies. We find a significant change of the spectral shape between proton–antiproton and semi-peripheral Au+Au collisions. Comparing semi-peripheral to central Au+Au collisions, we find that the yields at high pT exhibit approximate scaling with the number of participating nucleons, rather than scaling with the number of binary collisions.