Statistical picture of high energy nuclear collisions

We discuss nuclear reactions induced by nucleons or heavy ions at incident energies in the range of 0.5 to 1 GeV/nucleon. One-particle spectra and the correlations of two nucleons emitted are studied in the statistical limit: Subgroups of nucleons acquire a random occupation of their available phase space. As opposed to the thermal limit the finite number of nucleons gives rise to sizable correlations among the nucleons via the conservation laws. A surprising reproduction of the observed spectra--in particular at high momentum transfers (as in proton backward scattering)--is achieved by the model