NSF Award Abstract - #9814247

Given the investments into nuclear accelerator facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory and at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, and especially given the excitement of the impending operation of the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at Brookhaven, theoretical support offering interpretation of the physics in present and future heavy-ion experiments is quite important. This proposal concerns a continuing plan for theoretical examinations of various aspects of nuclear reactions at intermediate and high energies. Specific emphasis in the proposed research utilizes the Principal Investigator's expertise in finite temperature hadronic field theory to estimate particle production in nuclear collisions, with a larger goal of seeking to identify and explore new and practical knowledge of the collective response of nuclear matter to excitation far from its normal state. Analytical and numerical methods will be brought together in transport simulations and other model development to push back limits of understanding and fill gaps in knowledge of strong interaction physics. The Principal Investigator's specialty lies in electromagnetic probes of strongly interacting particle dynamics within the nuclear medium, which echoes as the central theme of the proposed research.