Intermediate pT phenomena in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Particles produced with intermediate values of transverse momentum 1-2(less-or-similar sign)pT(less-or-similar sign)4-5 GeV, exhibit both thermal and jet-like features making them an ideal testing ground of the properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in the aftermath of a relativistic heavy-ion collision, which have been only inferred from the behavior of either soft or hard modes. In this work I discuss two phenomena that that are observed in this transverse momentum window: the suppression of the single, non-photonic electron yield compared to normalized p+p collisions and the spin alignment of vector mesons. I make use of a recombination scenario of either a heavy or a fast quark with thermal ones and show that this way of describing hadron formation can account for the afore mentioned phenomena.