MEMORY EFFECTS IN RELATIVISTIC HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

We consider equilibration in relativistic nuclear dynamics starting from a nonequilibrium Green's-function approach. The widely used Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck equation is obtained only as the Markovian limit (i.e., negligible memory time). The actual memory time in energetic nuclear collisions turns out to be approximately 2-3 fm/c, which interferes substantially with the time scale of the relaxation process. The memory kernels of the collision process will be presented. Because of their more involved structure, depending sensitively on the kinematical regime, both less and more stopping power is observed in the reaction compared to the Markovian description.