Wee partons in large nuclei: from virtual dream to hard reality

Abstract

We construct a weak coupling, many body theory to compute parton distributions in large nuclei for $x\ll A^{-1/3}$. The wee partons are highly coherent, non--Abelian Weizsäcker--Williams fields. Radiative corrections to the classical results are discussed. The parton distributions for a single nucleus provide the initial conditions for the dynamical evolution of matter formed in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions.

Comments: Plenary talk at Quark Matter '95, Monterey, CA, Jan 1995; LaTex file 16 pages, uses espcrc2.sty; 1 separate uuencoded figure file which uses epsf.sty