Limits to complete fusion and the evolution of nuclear reaction mechanisms in the E/A = 10-100 MeV energy regime

With the advent of new intermediate-energy accelerators which produce beams of complex projectiles with energies in the range of E/A = 20-100 MeV, a new area of research in heavy-ion physics has opened. A description of the dominant reaction mechanisms in intermediate energy collisions has been the main goal of this research dissertation. Three major experimental efforts are reported in this work: (1) Inclusive measurements of linear momentum transfer in the 14N + 238U and p + 238U reactions were done, using the technique of angular correlations between fission fragments. (2) Coincidences between light charged particles and binary fission fragments in the 150 MeV 6Li + 238U and 60,13,200,270 MeV 3H + 238U reactions were measured to investigate major mechanisms of energy loss in the initial non-equilibrium phase of the reaction. (3) Coincidences between intermediate mass fragments (3 ≤ Z ≤ 7) and fission fragments were measured in the 270 MeV 3He + 238Th reaction. The mechanism of target fragmentation and its role in non-equilibrium energy loss in the reaction was investigated with this technique