Directed Flow of Identified Particles in Au + Au Collisions at $\sqrtsNN = 200$ GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of directed flow ($v_1$) for various identified particles in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV, revealing negative slopes and differences between protons and anti-protons, with models failing to fully explain the data.

Contribution

First detailed measurement of $v_1$ for multiple particle species at 200 GeV, highlighting discrepancies with existing theoretical models.

Findings

Negative $v_1(y)$ slopes observed for multiple particles.

Significant difference between proton and anti-proton $v_1$ in mid-central collisions.

Current models cannot fully reproduce the measured $v_1$ behavior.

Abstract

STAR's measurements of directed flow ($v_1$) for pions, kaons (charged and $K_s^0$), protons and antiprotons for Au + Au collisions at $\sqrtsNN = 200$ GeV are presented. Negative $v_1(y)$ slope is observed for pions, antiprotons, protons and kaons. The proton $v_1(y)$ slope at midrapidity is found extremely small. Sizable difference is seen between $v_1$ of protons and anti-protons in 5-30% central collisions. Anti-flow can explain the negative slope, however, it has difficulties explaining the centrality dependence of the difference between the $v_1(y)$ slopes of protons and anti-protons. The $v_1$ excitation function is presented. Comparisons to model calculations (RQMD, uRQMD, AMPT and QGSM) are made, and it is found that none of the four models can successfully describe the data.