STRING DYNAMICS IN HADRONIC MATTER

Hadron production in soft hadronic collisions is successfully described by a longitudinal excitation and subsequent decay of color flux tubes. We consider the dynamics of interacting unstable strings as a generalization designed for hA and AA interactions at ultrarelativistic energies. The constituent quarks at the ends of the decaying strings and the produced hadrons can interact with the surrounding matter. The effect of secondary interactions in molecular dynamics calculations for AA collisions at CERN energies (200 A GeV) can be seen in an enhancement of transverse energy, particle production and the mean transverse momenta. The results agree very well with the experimental measurements at ultrarelativistic beam energies in pp, hA and the recent AA collisions. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.