Densities and temperatures at fragment formation in heavy-ion collision

In order to clarify whether the liquid-gas phase transition is relevant to the multi-fragment formation found in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions, we estimate the densities and temperatures at fragment formation in Au+Au collisions at incident energies of 150 MeV/A and 400 MeV/A within the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model with and without quantum fluctuations implemented according to the Quantal Langevin (QL) model. The calculated results show that the IMFs are mainly produced inside the unstable region of nuclear matter, which supports the idea of the fragment formation from supercooled nuclear matter. (author)