CRITICAL EVENTS AND INTERMITTENCY IN NUCLEAR COLLISIONS

The structure of events in relativistic heavy ion collisions (RHIC), a ssociated with chiral QCD phase transition, is investigated. In partic ular the density fluctuations of pions, emitted from the excited vacuu m (at T approximate to T-c), are studied and classified in terms of in termittency patterns in rapidity space. For this purpose a Monte Carlo simulation of critical events in the central region is presented, on the basis of the O(4) theory of chiral phase transition. The universal character of these events is revealed and the predictions of the theo ry are discussed in connection with event by event measurements in cur rent and future experiments with relativistic heavy ions. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.