Validation of a new “3D calorimetry” of hot nuclei with the HIPSE event generator

International audienceIn nuclear thermodynamics, the determination of the excitation energy of hot nuclei is a fundamental experimental problem. Instrumental physicists have been trying to solve this problem for several years by building the most exhaustive 4π detector arrays and perfecting their calorimetry techniques. In a recent paper, a proposal for a new calorimetry, called “3D calorimetry”, was made. It tries to optimize the separation between the particles and fragments emitted by the quasiprojectile and the other possible contributions. This can be achieved by determining the experimental probability for a given nucleus of a nuclear reaction to be emitted by the quasiprojectile. It has been developed for the INDRA data. In the present work, we wanted to dissect and validate this new method of characterization of a hot quasiprojectile. So we tried to understand and control it completely to determine these limits. Using the Heavy Ion Phase Space Exploration (HIPSE) event generator and a software simulating the functioning of INDRA, we were able to achieve this goal and provide a quantitative estimation of the quality of the quasiprojectile characterization