RELATIVISTIC HYDRODYNAMICS FOR HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS .2. COMPRESSION OF NUCLEAR-MATTER AND THE PHASE-TRANSITION TO THE QUARK-GLUON PLASMA

We investigate the compression of nuclear matter in relativistic hydro dynamics. Nuclear matter is described by a sigma-omega-type model for the hadron matter phase and by the MIT bag model for the quark-gluon p lasma, with a first order phase transition between both phases. In the presence of phase transitions, hydrodynamical solutions change qualit atively, for instance, one-dimensional stationary compression is no lo nger accomplished by a single shock but via a sequence of shock and co mpressional simple waves. We construct the analytical solution to the ''slab-on-slab'' collision problem over a range of incident velocities . The performance of numerical algorithms to solve relativistic hydrod ynamics is then investigated for this particular test case. Consequenc es for the early compressional stage in heavy-ion collisions are point ed out.