Influence of shape fluctuations in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The influence of fluctuations of the shape degree of freedom in collisions of deformed nuclei with energies between 0.8 and 2.1 GeV/nucleon is analyzed on the basis of an intranuclear cascade simulation for the strongly deformed systems ${}_{}{}^{46}{}_{}{}^{}$Ti${+\mathrm{}}^{46}$Ti and ${}_{}{}^{166}{}_{}{}^{}$Er${+\mathrm{}}^{166}$Er. While there is a considerable sensitivity of the global event variables to the orientation for polarized beams and targets, this dependence disappears in the average over all orientations for impact parameter selected and integrated events. The dependence of the nuclear stopping and thermalization on the size of the system under consideration and on the bombarding energy is also investigated.