Mean charge and mass drift in deep-inelastic heavy-ion collisions

The drift in the mean values of the charge and mass distributions in deep-inelastic heavy-ion collisions is studied. An explanation of this drift based on a static potential energy surface is seen to be sometimes successful, but generally inadequate. However, the time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory reproduces the fragment mean charge and mass values satisfactorily in the anomalous cases. (author)