Multifragment Emission in the Reaction 36Ar + 197Au at E/A = 35, 50, 80, and 110 MeV

Multifragment emission in the reaction at has been measured with a low-threshold 4π detector array. Over this broad range of incident energies, the mean values and variances of the intermediate mass fragment (IMF: 3 ⩽ Z ⩽ 20) multiplicity distributions exhibit an approximate scaling with the total charged particle multiplicity. The measured multiplicities of light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments are compared with both a model involving statistical decay of an expanding compound nucleus, and with a model involving microscopic quasi-particle dynamics. The statistical decay model predictions are sensitive to the low-density nuclear equation of state