Impact parameter dependent light particle correlations for 40Ar induced reactions on 197Au at E/A = 60 MeV

With the help of a multidetector system of 96 plastic detectors, mounted in the forward hemisphere between 30 and 300, we measured light charged particles to make an off-line event-type selection. The final aim to distinguish different impact parameter domains with the plastic wall could be achieved using the observed multiplicity as the sampling parameter. With the help of a computer simulation based on a participant-spectator model to describe the reation, the mean observed multiplicity could be established to vary smoothly with the total multiplicity, a variable which is often cited as an indicator for the violence of a reaction. Even if the simulation indicates a broad distribution of the observed multiplicity over the different impact parameters, we could separate the extreme cases of peripheral and central collisions. If the events are selected with the appropriate multiplicity gates, it turns out that peripheral collisions give rise to enhanced correlations, whereas the correlation function is strongly reduced for central collisions. Between these extreme values the correlation reduces smoothly with the impact parameter. The space-time extent of the emitting system is therefore larger for small impact parameters than in peripheral collisions. Supposing that the spatial extent is rather independent of the impact parameter (except for very peripheral collisions) we suggest that the observed variation of the correlation function could indicate a variation of the emission time for light particles rather than a spatial evolution. On the contrary the temperature, determined equally after an event-type selection with the observed multiplicity, shows no variation with the impact parameter. This could indicate that a limiting temperature is reached at a value at which the emission of particles is faster than the temporal development of the temperature. (orig./HSI)