Transverse flow of nucleons and pions and the nuclear equation of state

A major goal of studying heavy ion reactions is the unique opportunity to create hot and dense nuclear matter in the laboratory. Early hydrodynamical calculations succeeded in describing the dynamics of the collisions of heavy nuclei. Mainly, there are three predictions of the hydrodynamical model which have now been confirmed by experiment namely nuclear stopping of heavy systems at central collisions, transverse flow (in the reaction plane) - the so-called bounce-off effect, and the emission of high energetic particles perpendicular to the reaction plane - the so-called squeeze out. The second aspect, namely the transverse flow of particles in the reaction plane is analysed using the Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (VUU) approach and the Quantum Molecular Dynamics model (QMD). The VUU model solves the VUU equation which governs the time evolution of the single particle distribution function f in phase space. The latter one is a Boltzmann integral modified by additional factors in order to take into account the Pauli blocking of the final states. (authors). 25 refs., 6 figs