Modelling the many-body dynamics of heavy ion collisions: Present status and future perspective

Basic problems of the semiclassical microscopic modelling of strongly interacting systems are discussed within the framework of Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD). This model allows to study the influence of several types of nucleonic interactions on a large variety of observables and phenomena occurring in heavy ion collisions at relativistic energies. It is shown that the same predictions can be obtained with several – numerically completely different and independently written – programs as far as the same model parameters are employed and the same basic approximations are made. Many observables are robust against variations of the details of the model assumptions used. Some of the physical results, however, depend also on rather technical parameters like the preparation of the initial configuration in phase space. This crucial problem is connected with the description of the ground state of single nuclei, which differs among the various approaches. An outlook to an improved molecular dynamics scheme for heavy ion collisions is given.