Perturbative dynamics of strangeness production at RHIC

Strange quark production in Au–Au collisions at RHIC is studied in the framework of the parton cascade model (PCM). The yields of (anti-) strange quarks for three production scenarios—primary–primary scattering full scattering and full production—are compared to a proton–proton baseline. Enhancement of strange quark yields in central Au–Au collisions compared to scaled p–p collisions increases with the number of secondary interactions. The centrality dependence of strangeness production for the three production scenarios is studied as well. For all production mechanisms, the strangeness yield increases with (Npart)4/3. The perturbative QCD regime described by the PCM is able to account for up to 50% of the observed strangeness at RHIC.