Angular correlations near the Fermi energy

Angular correlations between light particles have been studied to probe the extent to which a thermally equilibrated system is formed in heavy ion collisions near the Fermi energy. Single-light-particle inclusive energy spectra and two-particle large-angle correlations were measured for 40 and 50 MeV/nucleon C + C, Ag, and Au. The single-particle inclusive energy spectra are well fit by a three moving source parametrization. Two-particle large-angle correlations are shown to be consistent with emission from a thermally equilibrated source when the effects of momentum conservation are considered. Single-particle inclusive spectra and light-particle correlations at small relative momentum were measured for 35 MeV/nucleon N + Ag. Source radii were extracted from the two-particle correlation functions and were found to be consistent with previous measurements using two-particle correlations and the coalescence model. The temperature of the emitting source was extracted from the relative populations of states using the quantum statistical model and was found to be 4.8-2.4+2.8 MeV, compared to the 14 MeV temperature extracted from the slopes of the kinetic energy spectra