Experiments at GSI with ALADIN and INDRA

The multi-fragment spectator decays following collisions of 197Au on 197Au and other heavy nuclei at relativistic bombarding energies have been studied by the ALADIN collaboration in recent years. The partitioning modes of the excited systems and their thermodynamic properties at breakup were in the center of interest in these experiments. Temperatures and excitation energies, but also breakup densities and emission times have been determined. More recently, the multifragmentation of highly excited heavy nuclei was studied with the 4π multidetector INDRA in experiments at the GSI in 1998 and 1999. The motivation for these new experiments was to extend the investigation of fragmentation processes and of their link to the liquid-gas phase transition to bombarding energies beyond those used in previous INDRA campaigns at GANIL. First results from the analysis of these data will be discussed with particular emphasis on topics related to previous ALADIN work. (orig.)