Dynamics of strangeness and collective flows in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies

Strangeness (image, Λ and image) production in heavy-ion collisions near threshold energies has been investigated within the Lanzhou quantum molecular dynamics (LQMD) transport model. The kaon (antikaon)–nucleon and hyperon–nucleon potentials in dense nuclear matter are implemented in the model, which are computed from the chiral perturbation approach and the relativistic mean-field model, respectively. It is found that the in-medium potentials change the structure of transverse flow, and also affect the rapidity distributions and the inclusive spectra for strangeness production. The local temperature of the fire ball extracted from the kaon spectra of inclusive invariant cross sections is influenced by the kaon–nucleon potential. The stiffness of nuclear symmetry energy and the kaon–nucleon potential by distinguishing isospin effect play a significant role on the ratio of image, in particular at the subthreshold energies. The ratio of image depends on the high-density symmetry energy, in which the Σ–nucleon potential has a neglectable contribution on the isospin ratio.