With the advent of heavy-ion reactions, nuclear physics has acquired a new frontier. The new heavy-ion sources operating at electrostatic accelerators and the high-energy experiments performed at Berkeley, Dubna, Manchester and Orsay, have opened up the field, and have shown us impressive new prospects. The new accelerators now under construction at Berlin, Daresbury and Darmstadt, as well as those under consideration (GANIL, Oak Ridge, etc. ) are expected to add significantly to our knowledge and understanding of nuclear properties. This applies not only to such exotic topics as the existence and lifetimes of superheavy elements, or the possibil ity of shock waves in nuclei, but also to such more mundane issues as high-spin states, new regions of deformed nuclei and friction forces. The field promises not only to produce a rich variety of interesting phenomena, but also to have wide-spread theoretical implications. Heavy-ion reactions are characterized by the large masses of the fragments, as well as the high total energy and the large total angular momentum typically involved in the collision. A purely quantum-mechanical description of such a collision process may be too complicated to be either possible or inter esting. We expect and, in some cases,know that the classical limit, the limit of geometrical optics, a quantum-statistical or a hydrodynamical description correctly account for typical features.

This book covers various experimental and theoretical aspects of multiparticle production in high energy interactions from lepton-lepton, lepton-hadron, hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and heavy ion collisons. This is the first time that data from CERN LEP, FNAL, DESY, BNL AGS, CERN SPS and BNL RHIC have been collected in a single volume. Not only accelerator-induced reactions but also cosmic ray interactions of very high energy are discussed, and the up-to-date theoretical interpretations are summarized.

Written primarily for researchers and graduate students who are new in this emerging field, this book develops the necessary tools so that readers can follow the latest advances in this subject. Readers are first guided to examine the basic informations on nucleon-nucleon collisions and the use of the nucleus as an arena to study the interaction of one nucleon with another. A good survey of the relation between nucleon-nucleon and nucleus-nucleus collisions provides the proper comparison to study phenomena involving the more exotic quark-gluon plasma. Properties of the quark-gluon plasma and signatures for its detection are discussed to aid future searches and exploration for this exotic matter. Recent experimental findings are summarised.

This book covers various experimental and theoretical aspects of multiparticle production in high energy interactions from lepton-lepton, lepton-hadron, hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and heavy ion collisons. This is the first time that data from CERN LEP, FNAL, DESY, BNL AGS, CERN SPS and BNL RHIC have been collected in a single volume. Not only accelerator-induced reactions but also cosmic ray interactions of very high energy are discussed, and the up-to-date theoretical interpretations are summarized.