Exploring hot and baryon-dense matter with nucleus-nucleus collisions

The interest in hot and baryon-dense matter has recently intensified because of the prospects for exploring this phase region by a downgraded RHIC and the future FAIR. The baryon excess, the spatial irregularity of the system and its rapid evolution, and particularly the presence of a phase transition, pose interesting theoretical challenges that must be addressed in the development of the transport models required for the planning and interpretation of the experiments.