PHYSICS LETTERS B Multifragment production in Au+Au at 35 MeV/u Multics / Miniball Collaboration

Multifragment disintegration has been measured with a high efficiency detection system for the reaction Au + Au at E/A = 35 MeV. From the event shape analysis and the comparison with the predictions of a many-body trajectories calculation the data, for central collisions, are compatible with a fast emission from a unique fragment source. The disassembly of highly excited systems remains an open problem in the investigation of intermedi-ate energy nucleus-nucleus collisions [ 1,2]. One of the challenging questions for head-on collisions is whether light particles and fragments emission is com-patible with the fast emission from a unique thermal-ized source or it can still be explained in the deep-inelastic framework. Several recent experimental studies of central col-lisions, performed with very heavy nuclei at differ-ent incident energies, give different indications on thi