CHEMICAL EQUILIBRATION OF AN EXPANDING QUARK-GLUON PLASMA

The chemical equilibration of the parton distribution in collisions of two heavy nuclei at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is investigated. I nitial conditions are obtained from a self-screened parton cascade cal culation. The onset of transverse expansion of the system is found to impede the chemical equilibration. The system initially approaches che mical equilibrium, but then is driven away from it, when the transvers e velocity becomes large. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.