  We discuss the measured nuclear suppression of p + pbar production in 200
AGeV Au-Au collisions at RHIC within radiative energy loss. For the AKK set of
fragmentation functions, proton production is dominated by gluons, giving rise
to the expectation that the nuclear suppression for p + pbar should be stronger
than for pions due to the stronger coupling of gluons to the quenching medium.
Using a hydrodynamical description for the soft matter evolution, we show that
this is indeed seen in the calculation. However, the expected suppression
factors for pions and protons are sufficiently similar that a discrimination
with present data is not possible. In the high p_T region above 6 GeV where the
contributions of hydrodynamics and recombination to hadron production are
negligible, the model calculation is in good agreement with the data on p +
pbar suppression.
