Azimuthal Emission Patterns of $K^{+}$ and of $K^{-}$ Mesons in Ni + Ni Collisions near the Strangeness Production Threshold

Abstract

Azimuthal emission patterns of $K^{\pm }$ mesons have been measured in Ni + Ni collisions with the FOPI spectrometer at a beam kinetic energy of 1.91 A GeV. The transverse momentum $p_T$ integrated directed and elliptic flow of $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ mesons as well as the centrality dependence of $p_T$ - differential directed flow of $K^{+}$ mesons are compared to the predictions of HSD and IQMD transport models. The data exhibits different propagation patterns of $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ mesons in the compressed and heated nuclear medium and favor the existence of a kaon-nucleon in-medium potential, repulsive for $K^{+}$ mesons and attractive for $K^{-}$ mesons.