Calculations with the nuclear firestreak model

A model is presented which is capable of calculating simultaneously the spectra of pions, nucleons, and light nuclei from the collision of relativistic heavy ions. It is based on the nuclear thermodynamics of Mekjian and Kapusta. Maximum use is made of the conservation laws for baryon number, charge, energy, momentum, and angular momentum. Single particle inclusive cross sections were calculated and compared with experiment for a wide range of beam energies and observed fragments. Except for some conflicting normalizations and high-energy pions good agreement is found. The density at which hadrons effectively cease to interact, which is the only parameter in the model, is determined to be 0.12 hadrons/fm3. NUCLEAR REACTIONS Relativistic heavy ions; firestreaks, hadronic thermal equilibrium; calculated differential cross sections of π±, p, d, t, He3, He4; comparisons with experiment.