Thermal and chemical equilibration of hadronic matter

We study thermal and chemical equilibration in 'infinite' hadron matter as well as in finite size relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions using a BUU cascade transport model with resonance and string degrees-of-freedom. The 'infinite' hadron matter is simulated within a cubic box employing periodic boundary conditions. The various equilibration times depend on baryon density and energy density and are much shorter for particles consisting of light quarks then for particles including strangeness. For kaons and antikaons the chemical equilibration time is found to be larger than $\simeq$ 40 fm/c for all baryon and energy densities considered. The inclusion of continuum excitations, i.e. hadron 'strings', leads to a limiting temperature of $T_s\simeq$ 150 MeV.