Heavy ion physics at the Brookhaven alternating gradient synchrotron

The collision of large nuclei at relativisitic energies is the only known mechanism for creating and studying the properties (equation-of-state, EOS) of extremely dense nuclear matter. At sufficiently high matter densities, one of the most exciting possibilities is the formation of a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). However, it is an extremely difficult task to determine the ultimate density achieved during these collisions due to the fleeting nature of the high density state (the lifetime of these states is typically a few times 10-24 ns). We must rely on detailed comparisons between experimental measurements and complex Monte Carlo simulations of the colliding nuclei in order to extract meaningful estimates of the nuclear matter EOS. Our approach has been to study the behavior of the spectator matter (those protons and neutrons which do not directly interact during the collision) to determine the dynamics of the high density state which must necessarily influence the spectator matter as it decays. This report summarizes some of the key results of our study.