Elliptic flow of ϕ mesons at intermediate p T : Influence of mass versus quark number

We have studied elliptic flow $({v}_{2})$ of $\ensuremath{\phi}$ mesons in the framework of a multiphase transport (AMPT) model at CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energy. In the realms of AMPT model we observe that $\ensuremath{\phi}$ mesons at intermediate transverse momentum $({p}_{T})$ deviate from the previously observed [at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)] particle type grouping of ${v}_{2}$ according to the number of quark content, i.e, baryons and mesons. Recent results from the ALICE Collaboration have shown that $\ensuremath{\phi}$ meson and proton ${v}_{2}$ has a similar trend, possibly indicating that particle type grouping might be due to the mass of the particles and not the quark content. A stronger radial boost at LHC compared to RHIC seems to offer a consistent explanation to such observation. However, recalling that $\ensuremath{\phi}$ mesons decouple from the hadronic medium before additional radial flow is built up in the hadronic phase, a similar pattern in $\ensuremath{\phi}$ meson and proton ${v}_{2}$ may not be due to radial flow alone. Our study reveals that models incorporating $\ensuremath{\phi}$-meson production from $K\overline{K}$ fusion in the hadronic rescattering phase also predict a comparable magnitude of $\ensuremath{\phi}$ meson and proton ${v}_{2}$ particularly in the intermediate region of ${p}_{T}$. Whereas, ${v}_{2}$ of $\ensuremath{\phi}$ mesons created in the partonic phase is in agreement with quark-coalescence motivated baryon-meson grouping of hadron ${v}_{2}$. This observation seems to provide a plausible alternative interpretation for the apparent mass-like behavior of $\ensuremath{\phi}$-meson ${v}_{2}$. We have also observed a violation of hydrodynamical mass ordering between proton and $\ensuremath{\phi}$ meson ${v}_{2}$ further supporting that $\ensuremath{\phi}$ mesons are negligibly affected by the collective radial flow in the hadronic phase due to the small in-medium hadronic interaction cross sections.