Hadronization and quark probes of deconfinement at RHIC

We discuss experimental features of identified particle production from nucleus‐nucleus collisions. These features reflect hadronization from a deconfined partonic matter whose particle formation scheme is distinctly different from fragmentation phenomenology in elementary collisions. Multi‐parton dynamics, such as quark coalescences or recombinations, appear to be essential to explain the experimental measurements at the intermediate transverse momentum of 2–5 GeV/c. Constituent quarks seem to be the dominant degrees of freedom at hadronization. Heavy quark production should help quantify deconfined matter properties.