Study of the 40Ar + 68Zn reaction at 27.6 MeVNucleon

The various reaction mechanisms observed in the ⁴⁰Ar(1102 MeV) + ⁶⁸Zn reaction have been studied. Projectile-like fragments appear to result, in addition to deep-inelastic collisions, from projectile breakup, i.e. a process bearing a close similarity to high-energy fragmentation, and from direct transfer of nucleons. The origin of light fragments (4 ? Z ? 10) can be explained in terms of three distinct sources; one moving with the projectile velocity, a second having a velocity corresponding to full transfer of the projectile linear momentum to the projectile-plus-target system, and a third source moving with a velocity intermediate between the first two and corresponding to a very excited and non-equilibrated localized region of the nuclear system. The heavy fragments result essentially from an incomplete fusion process. Some features of the various types of fragments have been calculated. Comparisons with existing models are presented.