Spin and isospin fluctuations in heavy ion collisions and their dependence upon the shape of the dinuclear complex

The relevance of higher multipoles of giant isovector modes in the charge distribution of deep inelastic fragments is discussed and found to depend strongly on mass asymmetry. The sources of angular momentum fluctuations are investigated. Quantal effects are considered as well as effects arising from non-equilibrium and equilibrium statistical fluctuations. A model based upon equilibrium statistical mechanics is considered in detail and used to predict both 2nd moments of the angular momentum distributions and the angular momentum misalignment. Analytical expressions are derived to calculate the angular distributions of sequentially emitted particles, fission fragments, as well as gamma rays in terms of the angular momentum misalignment. Recent data on the angular distributions of sequential alphas, fission and gamma rays are analyzed in terms of the model. (author)