Excitation energy division in 51V + 197Au collisions at and near the barrier

Mass- and charge-yield distributions for 19 < Z < 84 were determined radiochemically for the binary collision products of ⁵¹V + ¹⁹⁷Au collisions at a bombarding energy corresponding exactly to the Bass-model barrier, E _cm = B, and at E _cm = B + 25 MeV. The average excitation energies as a function of Z are determined by comparing the centroids of the experimental, secondary mass distributions for given values of Z with the calculated primary centroids from minimization of the potential energy of the di-nuclear system, i.e. from the missing masses. At the barrier, in striking contrast to a thermal equilibrium, we find an extreme donor-acceptor asymmetry in the excitation-energy division reminiscent of the “sawtooth” phenomenon in low-energy nuclear fission. Here, the excitation energy sharing is apparently dominated by shape fluctuations at scission. At the slightly higher bombarding energy, E _cm = B + 25 MeV, we observe a rapid change toward equipartition of the excitation energy indicating that, here, the excitation energy division due to shape fluctuations is already covered up by the dissipative exchange of nucleons. Also, the balance of integral cross sections for fusion fission, deep-inelastic scattering, and quasi fission is investigated and is shown to contain important information about the dynamical evolution of the ⁵¹V + ¹⁹⁷Au system after having passed the entrance channel barrier.