Elliptic flow of φ-meson a sensitive probe for onset of de-confinement transition in high energy heavy-ion collisions

Elliptic flow (v_2) of \phi-meson is shown to be a sensitive probe of the partonic collectivity using A Multi Phase Transport (AMPT) model. Within the ambit of the AMPT model with partonic interactions (string melting version), the \phi-meson v_2 at midrapidity is found to have negligible contribution from hadronic interactions for Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. Changing the hadron cascade time in the model calculations does not change the \phi-meson v_2, while it reduces the v_2 of proton at low transverse momentum (pT). These observations indicate that a substantial reduction in \phi-mesons v_2 as a function of colliding beam energy would suggest the dominance of hadronic interactions over partonic interactions.