Kinetic description of the baryon subsystem of nuclear matter at intermediate energies

A kinetic equation of the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck type is obtained for the baryon subsystem of relativistic nuclear matter. For this purpose, the method of a nonequilibrium statistical operator is used in quantum hadrodynamics. This kinetic equation, derived by invoking a minimal number of assumptions, takes into account all basic relativistic quantum effects inherent in the Walecka model (baryon-antibaryon states, spin, and meson degrees of freedom, etc.). With this approach, the simplest versions of the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck equations used to describe intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions can be generalized in such way as to obtain more sophisticated versions of various levels of complexity