Correlations between fission fragments and light charged-particles in the reaction20Ne+197Au at 13 MeV/nucleon

rgy of light charged-particles has been measured in coincidence with one or two fission fragments in the reaction²⁰Ne+¹⁹⁷Au at a bombarding energy of 13 MeV/u. The fission cross section was found equal to 1,340±260 mb. Assuming that it represents the totality of the fusion cross section, the critical valuel _c is deduced equal to 93±9?, higher thanl _Bf=0=74 in the rotating liquid drop model. The main emission source for protons and alpha particles seems to be a thermally equilibrated composite system. The competition between fission and charged particle emission is unexpected in the frame of the statistical treatment. A high energy component is observed in the forward direction. These results correspond to the first step of a study programme on the evolution of nucleus-nucleus collisions between 10 and 100 MeV per nucleon.