Nuclear fragmentation in central collisions: Ni + Au from 32 to 90 A*MeV

Heavy ion collisions are one of tools for studying nuclear system far away from its equilibrium state. This work concerns the most violent collisions in the Ni + Au system for incident energies ranging from 32 up to 90 AMeV. These events were detected with the multidetector INDRA and selected by the Principal Component Analysis (multidimensional analysis). This method classifies the events according their detection features and their degree of dissipation. We observed two deexcitation mechanisms: a fusion/fission - evaporation process and a multifragmentation process. Those two coexist from 32 to 52 AMeV whereas only one subsists at 90 AMeV. For those two mechanisms, an component was observed which seems to be linked to the initial phase of the reaction. The energy fluctuations of this component leads to variations in the energy deposit which determines the deexcitation of the system. The experimental multifragmentation data of the Ni + Au system (52 and 90 AMeV) were compared to the predictions of a statistical model and to the experimental data of the system Xe + Sn at 50 AMeV (also detected with INDRA). These comparisons show the lack of collective radial energy for fragments (Z≥10) in the Ni + Au system, and show that the degree of multifragmentation depends of the thermal excitation energy. Mean kinetic energies of particles and lights fragments (Z≥10) are larger in the Ni + Au system than the Xe + Sn system. This observation shows that these particles are more sensitive to the entrance channel for an asymmetric system than for a symmetric system (for the same number of nucleons). (author)