Nucleus-nucleus collisions: Observations and expectations

Abstract

Selected topics of nucleus-nucleus collisions between MeV/u and TeV/u are discussed, covering some recent experiments on fusion and fusion-like processes in the heavy element regime at energies around the Coulomb-barrier, some experiments on ternary exit channels at the borderline to intermediate energies and some possible future experiments on signals associated with quark-gluon plasma formation at ultrarelativistic energies.