COMPUTING QUARK AND GLUON DISTRIBUTION-FUNCTIONS FOR VERY LARGE NUCLEI

We argue that the distribution functions for quarks and gluons are com putable at small x for sufficiently large nuclei, perhaps larger than can be physically realized. For such nuclei, we argue that weak coupli ng methods may be used. We show that the computation of the distributi on functions can be recast as a many-body problem with a modified prop agator, a coupling constant which depends on the multiplicity of parti cles per unit rapidity per unit area, and for non-Abelian gauge theori es, some extra media-dependent vertices. We explicitly compute the dis tribution function for gluons to lowest order, and argue how they may be computed in higher order.