Shock-wave phenomena in relativistic nuclear collisions

A shock wave picture of the deconfinement transition was studied. Central heavy ion collisions were considered using the one-dimensional shock model. Such a picture of nuclear collisions with neglected transparency can probably be justified at intermediate energies Elab/A < 10 GeV. For the description of the quark-gluon phase, the bag model equation of state was used with massless u and d quarks and gluons. A new generalized nuclear matter equation of state was formulated which preserves all advantages of the mean-field and phenomenological approaches. Non-trivial shock wave configurations have appeared in the one-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the compression stage in heavy ion collisions. These hydrodynamic configurations can serve as a signature of the deconfinement transition. (Z.S.) 2 figs., 13 refs