Target fragment production mechanisms in relativistic nuclear collisions

By studying the properties of large nuclear fragments from a heavy Au target nucleus at relativistic bombarding energies one is able to make a link between the physics of nuclear collisions at lower incident energies and the fireball-type phenomena that occur in highly excited systems at high projectile enrgy. We have studied collisions induced by protons, alpha particles, and Ne projectiles at total incident energies from 5 GeV to 42 GeV leading to pieces of the Au target nucleus emerging as bound nuclei with small velocities in th laboratory frame. Results are discussed