Importance of nuclear viscosity and thermal conductivity and the analysis of the bounce-off effect in high energy heavy ion collisions

We present an analysis of high energy heavy ion collisions at intermediate impact parameters, using a two-dimensional fluid-dynamical model including shear and bulk viscosity, heat conduction, a realistic treatment of the nuclear binding, and an analysis of the final thermal emission of free nucleons. We find large collective momentum transfer to projectile and target residues (the highly inelastic bounce-off effect) and explosion of the hot compressed shock zones formed during the impact. As the calculated azimuthal dependence of energy spectra and angular distributions of emitted nucleons depends strongly on the coefficients of viscosity and thermal conductivity, future exclusive measurements may allow for an experimental determination of these transport coefficients. The importance of $4\pi$ measurements with full azimuthal information is pointed out.