DYNAMICAL AND STATISTICAL FRAGMENT PRODUCTION IN HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS AT INTERMEDIATE ENERGIES

A large set of experimental data was analyzed in terms of characteristic signatures of different interaction as well as product emission scenarios. The analysis confirms that the reaction cross-section appears still dominated by dissipative binary reactions involving the survival of well-defined projectile- and target-like fragments. Consistent with such a "gentle" collision scenario are the Galilei-invariant velocity distributions of charged products featuring statistical emission from two fully accelerated projectile- and target-like fragments. On the other hand, the Galilei-invariant velocity plots reveal the presence of a third effective emission source with velocity intermediate between the velocities of projectile- and target-like fragments. Fragments emitted from the intermediate-velocity source appear to be produced dynamically in the overlap zone of the projectile and target nuclei. The experimental multidimensional joint distributions of neutrons and charged reaction products were found to exhibit several different types of prominent correlation patterns. It makes them a useful tool for probing reactions scenarios, different from the traditional approach of interpreting inclusive yields of individual reaction products.