Interpretation of the first data on central Au plus Au collisions at root s=56A and 130A GeV - art. no. 011901

We compare three semimicroscopic theories to the first data on particle pro duction in central Au+Au collisions taken at RHIC by the PHOBOS Collaborati on as well as to existing data on central Pb+Pb collisions taken at the SPS by the NA49 Collaboration. The Linear Extrapolation of Ultrarelativistic n ucleon-nucleon Scattering to nucleus-nucleus collisions (LEXUS) represents the SPS data quite well but predicts too many particles at RHIC. The wounde d nucleon model predicts too few particles at both the SPS and RHIC, the co llective tube model predicts fewer particles still. This suggests a transit ion in the dynamics of particle production between roots=17 and 56A GeV as one goes from the SPS to RHIC.