| The production and decay of the &phis; meson in relativistic heavy ion collisions is of considerable interest. An enhanced &phis; meson yield has been suggested as a signature for the formation of a deconfined phase. Furthermore, medium modifications of &phis; meson properties might be related to the expected chiral phase transition.; In the year of 2001, the PHENIX experiment at RHIC has measured Au-Au collisions at = 200 GeV. The trajectories and momenta of charged particles are measured with the PHENIX central arm tracking detectors. The additional velocity measurements from the high resolution Time-of-Flight detector as well as the broader acceptance Electromagnetic Calorimeter give PHENIX excellent capabilities to identify charged kaons. An excellent pair mass resolution of approximately 1.3 MeV was achieved for the combined systems. Results on the transverse mass distribution, the centrality dependence of the yield, inverse slope parameter, and the resonance and width of &phis; are presented. |
