Impact of particle production mechanisms on pseudorapidity distribution and directed flow in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 19.6 GeV using AMPT model
The STAR experiment at the top RHIC energy has observed that the directed flow ($v_1$) of inclusive light hadrons is independent of the collision system size at a given centrality~\cite{STAR:2008jgm}. However, recent STAR measurements indicate a system-size dependence in the $v_1(y)$-slope ($dv_{1}/dy$) of protons, antiprotons, and their differences ($Δdv_{1}/dy$) at a given centrality, suggesting a potential influence of baryon production and transport mechanisms~\cite{Taseer:SQM2024talk}. We have studied pseudorapidity ($dN/dy$) distributions and directed flow ($v_1$ and $dv_{1}/dy$) for pions, kaons, and protons in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 19.6$ GeV using the A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model. Specifically, we investigated the influence of string junction parameters in AMPT via the PYTHIA/JETSET routines, focusing on the popcorn mechanism and string-splitting parameters, on $dN/dy$, $dv_{1}/dy$, and their charge-dependent splittings ($ΔdN/dy$ and $Δdv_{1}/dy$). We observe that string junction parameters can affect $dN/dy$, $dv_{1}/dy$, $ΔdN/dy$, and $Δdv_{1}/dy$ for $π$, K, and p, and influence their system-size dependence. The effect is most prominent on the $v_1$ of protons, non-trivial for kaons, while the pions $v_1$ remain largely unchanged. These findings provide insights into the interplay between particle production mechanisms, baryon transport, and directed flow in heavy-ion collisions.