Elliptic flow of transported and produced protons in Au+Au collisions with the UrQMD model *

Abstract

Abstract Within the framework of the UrQMD model, by tracing the number of initial quarks in protons, we study the elliptic flow of protons with 3, 2, 1, 0 initial quarks and anti-protons in Au+Au collisions at = 7.7, 11.5, 39, 200 GeV. The difference of elliptic flow between protons with 2, 1, 0 initial quarks and anti-protons is smaller than 0, or consistent with 0, respectively. The difference of elliptic flow between transported protons (with 3 initial quarks) and anti-protons is larger than 0 at 7.7, 11.5 and 39 GeV. This is in good agreement with the STAR results at 7.7 and 11.5 GeV, but overestimates the STAR results at 39 GeV. The yield of transported protons with 3 initial quarks is smaller than of protons with 2 and 1 initial quarks, and of all protons is much smaller than the STAR results. The observation of the difference of elliptic flow between transported protons and anti-protons in the UrQMD model partly explains the difference between protons and anti-protons observed in the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).