Elliptic flow at large transverse momenta from quark coalescence -: art. no. 092301

We show that hadronization via quark coalescence enhances hadron elliptic flow at large p(perpendicular to) 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/deta(b=0)similar to1500-3000 can explain the differential elliptic flow v(2)(p(perpendicular to)) data for Au+Au reactions at roots=130 and 200A GeV from BNL RHIC. In addition, v(2)(p(perpendicular to)) could saturate at about 50% higher values for baryons than for mesons. If strange quarks have weaker flow than light quarks, hadron v(2) at high p(perpendicular to) decreases with relative strangeness content.