Dynamical phase trajectories for relativistic nuclear collisions

Central collisions of gold nuclei are simulated by several existing models and the central net baryon density rho and the energy density epsilon are extracted at successive times for beam kinetic energies of 5-40 GeV/nucleon. The resulting trajectories in the (rho,epsilon) phase plane are discussed from the perspective of experimentally exploring the expected first-order hadronization phase transition with the planned FAIR at GSI or in a low-energy campaign at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.