Analytical treatment of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

We review an analytical study of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions based on Boltzmann's kinetic theory of gases. In the first part of the paper, we do not take effects of the nuclear mean field into account. This turns out to be appropriate for particle inclusive production, as the good agreement of the theory with a large variety of inclusive experimental data demonstrates. As soon as physical observables extracted from measurements on an event per event basis are considered, the nuclear potential plays a decisive role. To account for this fact, we extend the theory by including the nuclear mean field in the Boltzmann equation. The results obtained are in qualitative agreement with experimental exclusive observables such as the sideward kinetic energy flow angle and the average transverse momentum, despite the absence of strong compression of nuclear matter in the theory presented. (orig.)