  The breaking of SU(6) symmetry to a more general flavor SU(3) symmetry could
serve as a potential explanation for the "hyperon puzzle" of neutron stars by
adjusting the hyperon potentials. Specifically, when the soft relativistic
mean-field (RMF) $\Lambda$ hyperon potentials fall within the domains of chiral
SU(3) interactions NLO13 with two-body forces, the maximum mass of neutron
stars is expected to be lower than 2.0 $M_\odot$, whereas it can exceed
$2.0M_\odot$ if the RMF $\Lambda$ hyperon potentials are sufficiently stiff to
be consistent with those from chiral SU(3) interactions NLO13 with three-body
forces. In our investigation involving these two types of $\Lambda$ hyperon
potentials, we explore how the hyperon yields and flows are affected in
heavy-ion collisions. We find that the inclusion of hyperon potentials results
in better agreement of the $\Lambda$ directed flows with data but without clear
differentiation in the stiffness of the hyperon potentials. Similarly negligent
is the disparity in the rapidity distributions of the $\Lambda$ collective
flows predicted by the stiff and soft hyperon potentials. In contrast, the
$\Lambda$ collective flows beyond the central rapidity region turn out to be
sensitive to the stiffness of the RMF equation of state (EOS) with the
preference of a soft RMF EOS to a stiff one. Notably, the transverse momentum
distributions of $\Lambda$ hyperon production are sensitive to both the
stiffness of the RMF EOS and $\Lambda$ hyperon potential at high transverse
momenta.
