Elliptic Flow at Large Transverse Momenta from Quark Coalescence

We show that hadronization via quark coalescence enhances hadron elliptic flow at large p_⊥ relative to that of partons at the same transverse momentum. Therefore, compared to earlier results based on covariant parton transport theory, more moderate initial parton densities dN/dη(b=0)~1500--3000 can explain the differential elliptic flow v₂(p_⊥) data for Au+Au reactions at √s=130 and 200A GeV from BNL RHIC. In addition, v₂(p_⊥) could saturate at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. If strange quarks have weaker flow than light quarks, hadron v₂ at high p_⊥ decreases with relative strangeness content.