Proton collective flows in heavy-ion collisions from AGS ((2–11) A GeV) to SPS ((40,158) A GeV) energies are investigated in a nonequilibrium transport model with nuclear mean-field (MF). Sideward (p_x), directedv₁, and ellipticv₂ flows are systematically studied with different assumptions on the nuclear equation of state (EoS). We find that momentum dependence in the nuclear MF is important for understanding the proton collective flows at AGS and SPS energies. Calculated results with momentum-dependent MF qualitatively reproduce the experimental data of proton sideward, directed, and elliptic flows in an incident energy range of (2–158) A GeV

We analyze the spectra of pions and protons in heavy-ion collisions at relativistic energies from 2 A GeV to 65+65 A GeV by using a jet-implemented hadron-string cascade model. In this energy region, hadron transverse mass spectra first show softening until SPS energies, and re-hardening may emerge at RHIC energies. Since hadronic matter is expected to show only softening at higher energy densities, this re-hardening of spectra can be interpreted as a good signature of the quark-gluon plasma formation