Azimuthal anisotropy scaling functions for identified particle and anti-particle species across beam energies: Insights into baryon junction effects

Azimuthal anisotropy scaling functions are constructed from species-resolved anisotropy measurements in Pb+Pb (s_NN=2.76, 5.02 TeV) and Au+Au (s_NN=7.7–200 GeV) collisions to probe baryon transport and medium response at finite baryon chemical potential (μ_B). Within this data-driven framework, meson and baryon anisotropies spanning the collective-flow and quenching regimes collapse onto common scaling curves, enabling quantitative separation of viscous attenuation, radial flow, and hadronic re-scattering. The attenuation scale k_β exhibits a non-monotonic beam-energy dependence, coincident with the low-energy rise of hadronic re-scattering, consistent with a temperature-dependent specific shear viscosity featuring a near-minimum near the QCD critical region. A charge-odd baryon–antibaryon separation in the effective radial-flow response is negligible at LHC energies but grows toward lower s_NN. This species-uniform, baryon-number-scaling separation across p , Λ, Ξ, Ω, and d disfavors a purely hadronic origin and supports junction-driven net-baryon transport at finite μ_B , enhancing the experimental visibility of critical dynamics in finite, rapidly evolving systems. Together, these results establish species-resolved scaling functions as a compact and robust tool for constraining baryon stopping, medium opacity, and QGP transport properties.