Universality of identified hadron production in pp collisions

The shapes of invariant differential cross section for identified $\pi ^{\pm },K^{\pm }, p$ and $\overline{p}$ production as a function of transverse momentum measured in $pp$ collisions by the PHENIX detector are analyzed in terms of a recently introduced approach. Simultaneous fits of these data to the sum of exponential and power-law terms show a significant difference in the exponential term contributions. This effect qualitatively explains the observed shape of the experimental $K/\pi $ and $p/\pi $ yield ratios measured as a function of transverse momentum of produced hadrons. A picture with two types of mechanisms for hadron production is presented. Universality of the power-law term behavior for $\pi ^{\pm },K^{\pm }, p$ , and $\overline{p}$ production is shown.