Subthreshold pion production from nucleus-nucleus collisions around 100 MeV/nucleon

Several global variables were tested with the aim to determine the impact parameter in nucleus-nucleus collisions producing pions at incident energies around 100 MeV/nucleon. The experimental set-up includes the MEDEA multidetector, part of which is used as a⁰ spectrometer, and an additional hodoscope of plastic scintillators to cover very forward angles. A statistical model was used to generate bothinclusive and pion-triggered events. Selection ofwell measured events was made through the measured total parallel momentum. Among the different global variables which were tested, the average parallel velocity was seen to give the best correlation with the impact parameter.