Experimental signatures for the formation and decay of localized regions of high excitation in nucleus-nucleus collisions

One of the most interesting open problems in nuclear physics concerns the question whether it is possible to extract information about the thermodynamic properties of nuclear matter from nuclear collision experiments. This question cannot be answered trivially because of several complications which arise from the fact that nuclear collision experiments correspond to the formation and decay of short lived nuclear systems which contain less than 500 nucleons. The kinematical region is discussed where simple processes such as direct transfer-like reactions followed by the sequential decay of excited projectile residues or direct knockout reactions are less important and where statistical concepts may be applicable. Contents are the following: non-compound particle emission, light particle correlations at small relative moments, and azimuthal distribution of non-compound light particles. (Mori, K.)