Identified charged particle production in Au+Au interactions at STAR- RHIC

The study of the production of charged particles at high transverse momenta plays an important role in the understanding of the interaction mechanism of high-E/sub t/ jets with the dense nuclear matter. A prototype of a RICH (Ring Imaging CHerenkov) detector developed in the framework of the CERN-ALICE experiment has been fully integrated in the STAR experiment at RHIC (BNL). It allows identification of primary charged particles (namely pi , K and p) extending the region of acceptance of the experiment to medium-high transverse momenta (p/sub t/<2.5 GeV/c for pi and K, p/sub t/<5 GeV/c for protons). Methods of pattern recognition and identification of charged particles using the RICH will be presented. Preliminary results on identified charged particle ratios at midrapidity and 1.5<p/sub t/<2.5 GeV/c will be also shown. (7 refs).