Out-of-plane correlations of α-particles and heavy ions in the reaction of 373 MeV32S with gold

Out-of-plane correlations between α-particles and projectile-like heavy ions have been measured for the system³²S+¹⁹⁷Au at E_LAB=373 MeV. The angular widths of the correlations range from 24° to 40° (FWHM) depending on theZ of the heavy ion. In the framework of a model calculation these widths are shown to be very sensitive to the outof-plane momentum of the α-particle at emission. It is concluded that only little heating of the reaction partners occurs prior to α-particle emission.