dσ/${\mathit{dE}}_{\mathit{t}}$ in heavy ion collisions and nucleon-nucleon cross section fluctuations

The prediction of transverse energy distributions, dσ/${\mathit{dE}}_{\mathit{t}}$, in heavy ion collisions is examined and extended and the evidence for the effect of anomalous cross section fluctuations on the cross section at high transverse energy is critically examined. We calculate the contribution to the transverse energy of rescattering of target nucleons on their unstruck neighbors.