Hadron distributions in deep inelastic electron-nucleus scattering at collider energies

Deep inelastic lepton scattering on nuclear target is the simplest experiment for analyzing and controlling the effect of nuclear matter on the hadron production in high energy particle reactions. It allows to investigate not only the space time structure of the hadronization process itself but also the possible interaction of not yet confined partons with nuclear matter. The physics issues which can be addressed in this kind of experiments are briefly described, the status of the research in this field reviewed and the perspectives for future experiment with deep inelastic lepton-nucleus are discussed. (author)