Kaon differential flow in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

Using a relativistic transport model, we study the azimuthal momentum asymmetry of kaons with fixed transverse momentum, i.e., the differential flow, in heavy-ion collisions at beam momentum of 6 GeV/c per nucleon, available from the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). We find that in the absence of kaon potential the kaon differential flow is positive and increases with transverse momentum as that of nucleons. The repulsive kaon potential as predicted by theoretical models, however, reduces the kaon differential flow, changing it to negative for kaons with low transverse momenta. Cancellation between the negative differential flow at low momenta and the positive one at high momenta is then responsible for the experimentally observed nearly vanishing in-plane transverse flow of kaons in heavy-ion experiments. [S0556-2813(99)02109-3].