Reaction dynamics in Pb plus Pb at the CERN/SPS:: From partonic degrees of freedom to freeze-out

We analyze the reaction dynamics of central Pb+Pb collisions at 160 GeV/nucleon. First we estimate the energy density epsilon pile-up at mid-rapidity and calculate its excitation function: epsilon is decomposed into hadronic and partonic contributions. A detailed analysis of the collision dynamics in the framework of a microscopic transport model shows the importance of partonic degrees of freedom and rescattering of leading (di)quarks in the early phase of the reaction for E-lab greater than or equal to 30 GeV/nucleon. The energy density reaches up to 4 GeV/fm(3), 95% of which are contained in partonic degrees of freedom. It is shown that cells of hadronic matter, after t approximate to 2R/gamma upsilon(cm), can be viewed as nearly chemically equilibrated. This matter never exceeds energy densities of similar to 04 GeV/fm(3), i.e. a density above which the notion of separated hadrons loses its meaning. The final reaction stage is analyzed in terms of hadron ratios, freeze-out distributions and a source analysis for final state pions.