Fragmentation of gold projectiles: From evaporation to total disassembly

We have studied the fragmentation of Au projectiles interacting with targets of C, Al and Cu at an incident energy ofE/A=600 MeV. The employed inverse kinematics allowed a nearly complete detection of projectile fragments with chargeZ≧2. The recorded fragmentation events were sorted according to three observables, the multiplicityM _lp of light charged particles, the largest atomic numberZ _max within an event, and a new observable,Z _bound, representing the sum of the atomic numbersZ of all fragments withZ≧2. Using these observables, the impact parameter dependence of the fragmentation process was investigated. For all three targets, a maximum mean multiplicity of 3 to 4 intermediate mass fragments (IMFs) is observed. The corresponding impact parameters range from central collisions for theC target to increasingly peripheral collisions for the heavier targets. It is found that the correlation between the IMF multiplicity andZ _bound, extending from evaporation type processes (largeZ _bound) to the total disassembly of the projectile (smallZ _bound), is independent of the target nucleus. This universal behaviour may suggest an — at least partial — equilibration of the projectile fragment prior to its decay.