The intranuclear cascade for heavy ion relativistic collisions

The authors introduce the intranuclear cascade model and discuss the background for its application to nucleus-nucleus collisions in the energy range of 1 GeV per nucleon. The ingredients of the model as implemented in a numerical code are described. The following properties of the system in collision are discussed: matter density, energy distribution of the particles, chemical composition. The results for the final proton spectra and for the yield and spectra of produced pions and kaons are given and compared to experiment. The emission of deuterons is analyzed in connection with entropy. The place of the model in the framework of kinetic theory is discussed, and a comparison is made with hydrodynamics. Possible modifications and extensions of the model, with regard to the properties of the compressed nuclear matter, and to application at lower and higher energies, are presented