Transverse momentum phenomenology as a probe of RHIC collisions

The PHENIX experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has superb capabilities for measuring the properties of both charged and neutral particles out to very high values of transverse momentum. The systematic phenomenology of transverse momentum observables carries a wealth of information about the physical environment created by relativistic heavy-ion collisions and a comparison of results obtained from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at energies ranging up to the RHIC heavy-ion maximum of SNN=200 GeV is a useful way to investigate the physics of these collisions. These probes not only provide information about properties of nuclear matter under extreme conditions but also provide a solid connection to pQCD calculations.