Radiochemical studies of intermediate mass fragments from intermediate energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

The authors have measured the excitation functions, energy spectra and angular distributions of intermediate mass (24 ≤ A ≤ 60) fragments produced in the reaction of 7-107 A MeV lighter heavy ions (C-Ne) with 197Au and 238U. The angular distributions and energy spectra support the idea that the majority of these fragments are produced in the binary breakup of a target-like object in a fast process in which statistical equilibrium has not been achieved. The excitation functions are consistent with this interpretation because the multifragmentation processes responsible for fragment production in high energy collisions appear to be superceded by a different process at these energies