Conservation laws and multiplicity evolution of spectra at energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Transverse momentum distributions in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions carry considerable information about the dynamics of the hot system produced. Direct comparison with the same spectra from p+p collisions has proved invaluable in identifying novel features associated with the larger system, in particular, the jet quenching at high momentum and the apparently much stronger collective flow dominating the spectral shape at low momentum. We point out possible hazards of ignoring conservation laws in the comparison of high- and low-multiplicity final states. We argue that the effects of energy and momentum conservation actually dominate many of the observed systematics, and that p+p collisions may be much more similar to heavy ion collisions than generally thought.