Minijet Production in High-Energy Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions

Uranium-uranium collisions at the energy of the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (100 + 100 GeV per nucleon) are predicted to produce an average of nearly 100 jets with $p_T>3\mathrm{}$ GeV. These jets will on average carry of 70 GeV of transverse energy $E_T$ per unit rapidity. Central collisions produce more transverse energy than this; the $E_T$ distribution extends up to about $\frac{\left(5\mathrm{}{A}^{\frac{4}{3}} {\mathrm{GeV}}^4\right)}{p_{Tmin}^3}$ per unit rapidity, which is 4 times the average. It is estimated that the minijets are likely to undergo further collisions and become thermalized.