Strange-quark-number-dependent response to partonic dynamics in baryon-rich Au+Au collisions

We identify a strange-quark-number-dependent hierarchy in the response to explicit partonic dynamics by comparing PHSD5.2 with its hadron–string limit in baryon-rich Au+Au collisions at s NN = 3.0 –7.2 GeV. Crossing the local conversion threshold alone does not ensure a visible final-state signal: abundant-hadron flow changes little at 3–4.5 GeV, whereas the fractional yield response becomes ordered at 6.2–7.2 GeV, reaching S | s | = 1 ≃ 0.2 –0.3, S | s | = 2 ≃ 0.65 , and S | s | = 3 ≃ 0.93 at 7.2 GeV. The hierarchy is consistent with an enlarged recombination phase space for strange constituents released from different pre-hadronic sources, but does not by itself establish an increase in the total s + s ¯ abundance or stronger strange-quark clustering. Since S X is a model-defined response rather than a direct observable, matched excitation functions of Ξ − / Λ and Ω − / Λ , together with high- m T proton elliptic flow, provide experimentally accessible discriminants between the predicted PHSD and HSD dynamics.