Dissipative phenomena and fragmentation in low-energy heavy-ion reactions of medium-mass regions

We performed a systematic investigation on the characteristics of transitional dissipative mechanisms in the medium-mass region (around A=100 for the composite system) for different projectile-target combinations. We were able to show that in general the reaction mechanisms of dissipative collisions for different medium-mass systems could be described in terms of a continuous relaxation process, leading the composite system from the entrance channel to more or less equilibrated configurations, depeding on the system lifetime. At the extremes of this general evolution process, i.e. in the limit of very short or long lifetimes, deep inelastic reactions and fusion-fission are found, respectively, as characteristic processes exhibiting the equilibration in only some, or in all, of the relevant degress of freedom. (orig./HSI)