Scaling distributions of quarks, mesons, and proton for all pT, energy, and centrality -: art. no. 064902

We present the evidence for the existence of a universal scaling behavior of the production of pi(0) at all transverse momenta in heavy-ion collisions at all centralities and all collision energies. The corresponding scaling behavior of the quarks is then derived just before the quarks recombine with antiquarks to form the pions. The degradation effect of the dense medium on the quark p(T) is derived from the scaling distribution. In the recombination model it is then possible to calculate the p(T) distributions of the produced proton and kaon, which are scaling also. Experimentally verifiable predictions are made. Implications of the existence of the scaling behavior are discussed.