Directed and elliptic flows of protons and deuterons in HADES Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.4$ GeV

Abstract

Within a transport model coupled with a microscopic coalescence model, the directed and elliptic flows of protons and deuterons as well as their scalling properties are studied in the centrality of 20-30% Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.4$ GeV. It is found that the flows as well as their scaling properties simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility $K_0=230$ MeV fit fairly the HADES data, while those simulated with the commonly used momentum-independent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility $K_0=380$ MeV can only fit partially the HADES data. Moreover, by checking the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons in the centrality of 0-10% Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.4$ GeV, we find that the rapidity distributions of deuterons are underestimated while those of protons are overestimated by the simulations with the momentum-independent nuclear mean field. In contrast, the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field are in good agreement with the HADES data. Our findings imply that the momentum dependence of nuclear mean field is an unavoidable feature for a fundamental understanding of nuclear matter properties and for the successful interpretation of the HADES data.

Comments: 7 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Physics Letters B