Simulations of relativistic heavy-ion collisions within the three-fluid model employing a purely hadronic equation of state (EoS) and two versions of the EoS involving deconfinement transition are presented. The latter are an EoS with the first-order phase transition and that with a smooth crossover transition. The model setup is described in detail. The analysis is performed in a wide range of incident energies 2.7 GeV $⩽\sqrt{s_{NN}}⩽$ 39 GeV in terms of the center-of-mass energy. Results on proton and net-proton rapidity distributions are reported. Comparison with available data indicate certain preference of the crossover EoS. It is found that predictions within deconfinement-transition scenarios exhibit a “peak-dip-peak-dip” irregularity in the incident energy dependence of the form of the net-proton rapidity distributions in central collisions. This irregularity is a signal of deconfinement onset occurring in the hot and dense stage of the nuclear collision.

• Received 27 February 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.87.064904