Directed flow of $Λ$ in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and $Λ$ potential in dense nuclear matter

We investigate the sensitivity of the $Λ$ directed flow to the $Λ$ potential in mid-central Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}\approx3.0$--$30$ GeV. The $Λ$ potential obtained from the chiral effective field theory ($χ$EFT) is used in a microscopic transport model, a vector version of relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (RQMDv). We find that the density-dependent $Λ$ potentials, obtained from the $χ$EFT assuming weak momentum dependence of the potential, reproduce the rapidity and the beam-energy dependence of the $Λ$ directed flow measured by the STAR collaboration in the Beam Energy Scan program. Although the $Λ$ directed flow is insensitive to the density dependence of the potential, it is susceptible to the momentum dependence. We also show that a hydrodynamics picture based on the blast-wave model predicts a similarity of the proton, $Λ$, and $Ξ$ directed flows, but the directed flow of $Ω$ baryons slightly deviates from other baryons. We also show that the quark coalescence predicts different rapidity dependence of the directed flows for hyperons. These investigations suggest that measurements of a wide range of the rapidity dependence of the directed flow of hyperons may provide important information about the properties of hot and dense matter created in high-energy heavy-ion collisions.