No Arabic abstract
A previous analysis of the charge (Z) correlations in the $Delta Z-<Z>$ plane for Xe+Sn central collisions at 32 MeV/u has shown an enhancement in the production of equally sized fragments (low $Delta Z$) which was interpreted as an evidence for spinodal decomposition. However the signal is weak and rises the question of the estimation of the uncorrelated yield. After a critical analysis of its robustness, we propose in this paper a new technique to build the uncorrelated yield in the charge correlation function. The application of this method to Xe+Sn central collision data at 32, 39, 45 and 50 MeV/u does not show any particular enhancement of the correlation function in any $Delta Z$ bin.
Ensembles of single-source events, produced in peripheral and central collisions and correponding respectively to quasi-projectile and quasi-fusion sources, are analyzed. After selections on fragment kinematic properties, excitation energies of the sources are derived using the calorimetric method and the mean behaviour of fragments of the two ensembles are compared. Differences observed in their partitions, especially the charge asymmetry, can be related to collective energy deposited in the systems during the collisions.
The defining characteristics of fragment emission resulting from the non-central collision of 114Cd ions with 92Mo target nuclei at E/A = 50 MeV are presented. Charge correlations and average relative velocities for mid-velocity fragment emission exhibit significant differences when compared to standard statistical decay. These differences associated with similar velocity dissipation are indicative of the influence of the entrance channel dynamics on the fragment production process.
Fragment properties of hot fragmenting sources of similar sizes produced in central and semi-peripheral collisions are compared in the excitation energy range 5-10 AMeV. For semi-peripheral collisions a method for selecting compact quasi-projectiles sources in velocity space similar to those of fused systems (central collisions) is proposed. The two major results are related to collective energy. The weak radial collective energy observed for quasi-projectile sources is shown to originate from thermal pressure only. The larger fragment multiplicity observed for fused systems and their more symmetric fragmentation are related to the extra radial collective energy due to expansion following a compression phase during central collisions. A first attempt to locate where the different sources break in the phase diagram is proposed.
The characteristics, in particular the isotopic composition (N/Z), of intermediate mass fragments (IMF : 3<=Z<=20) produced near the center-of-mass in mid-peripheral and central collisions of 114Cd ions with 92Mo target nuclei at E/A=50 MeV are compared to that of IMFs emitted from the projectile-like fragment (PLF) in mid-peripheral collisions. IMFs produced at mid-velocities are on average larger in atomic number, more energetic, and more neutron-rich as compared to IMFs emitted from the PLF. In contrast, the characteristics of mid-velocity IMFs in central collisions and mid-peripheral collisions are comparable.
Correlation functions, constructed from directional projections of the relative velocities of fragments, are used to determine the shape of the breakup volume in coordinate space. For central collisions of 129Xe + natSn at 50 MeV per nucleon incident energy, measured with the 4pi multi-detector INDRA at GSI, a prolate shape aligned along the beam direction with an axis ratio of 1:0.7 is deduced. The sensitivity of the method is discussed in comparison with conventional fragment-fragment velocity correlations.