Light nuclei elliptic flow at mid-rapidity in $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 3.0-3.9$ GeV Au+Au collisions using coalescence model

Abstract

Light nuclei collective flow is an important probe for understanding their production mechanisms in heavy-ion collisions. The STAR collaboration has reported that the atomic mass number ($A$) scaling of light nuclei elliptic flow $v_2$ is broken at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 3.0-3.9$ GeV. The observations reveals that, while protons maintain negative $v_2$ values at mid-rapidity at both 3.0 and 3.2 GeV, light nuclei $v_2$ exhibit a sign change from negative at 3.0 GeV to positive at 3.2 GeV. In this study, we investigate $v_2$ of protons and deuterons in mid-central Au+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} =$ 3.0, 3.2, 3.5 and 3.9 GeV using the JAM2 microscopic transport model. Deuterons are formed via nucleon coalescence, with the spatial distance ${\Delta R}$ and momentum difference ${\Delta P}$ between constituent protons and neutrons serving as the coalescence criteria. Our calculations successfully reproduce the sign change in deuteron $v_2$ at 3.2 GeV. We observe a strong dependence of nucleon coalescence probability on the azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane. This effect is primarily driven by the transverse momentum dependence of the mean spatial $\langle {\Delta R} \rangle$ and momentum $\langle {\Delta P} \rangle$ separations between nucleon pairs, which vary with the nucleon azimuthal angle. Moreover, our analysis demonstrates that the stiffness of the nuclear equation of state plays a crucial role in determining the energy dependence of this sign change in deuteron $v_2$ at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=3.2$ GeV.