A microscopic calculation of fragment formation in nucleus-nucleus collisions

A microscopic model using effective and free nucleon-nucleon scattering cross sections is used to calculate the yields of projectile-like fragments from nucleus-nucleus collisions from 20 MeV/A to 2 GeV/A. Good agreement with reaction cross-section and fragment cross-section measurements is obtained. The enhanced yields of neutron-rich fragments observed experimentally at low beam energies from collisions of projectiles with heavy targets are reproduced somewhat better by the inclusion of a neutron-rich surface on the heavy-target nuclei. Each fragment mass is produced in a strongly localized region of the distance of closest approach between the colliding nuclei; lighter fragments come from small distances and the heavier ones from more peripheral collisions.