Knock-Out Nucleons from Relativistic Nuclear Collisions

A nonequilibrium single-scattering mechanism is proposed to describe the inclusive proton spectrum from relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Data from ${}_{}{}^{20}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ne}$ + U and ${}_{}{}^4{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$ + U collisions are shown to be consistent with a simple model of the knock-out process. Two-proton azimuthal angle correlations are suggested as a unique signature of this reaction mechanism.