COLLECTIVE FLOW AS A PROBE OF HEAVY-ION REACTION DYNAMICS

Collective flow of nuclear matter probes the dynamics of heavy-ion rea ctions and can provide information about the nuclear-matter equation o f state. Ir. particular, the incident-energy dependence of collective flow may be a sensitive means to deduce the existence of a quark-gluon plasma phase in the equation of state. Collective-flow measurements f rom 30 A MeV to 200 A GeV incident energies are briefly reviewed. Prel iminary results on collective flow from the WA98 experiment at the: CE RN SPS are presented.