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The performance of the LAND neutron detector is studied. Using an event-mixing technique based on one-neutron data obtained in the S107 experiment at the GSI laboratory, we test the efficiency of various analytic tools used to determine the multiplicity and kinematic properties of detected neutrons. A new algorithm developed recently for recognizing neutron showers from spectator decays in the ALADIN experiment S254 is described in detail. Its performance is assessed in comparison with other methods. The properties of the observed neutron events are used to estimate the detection efficiency of LAND in this experiment., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

The N/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at the GSI Schwerionen Synchrotron (SIS). Stable and radioactive Sn and La beams with an incident energy of 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. For the interpretation of the data, calculations with the statistical multifragmentation model for a properly chosen ensemble of excited sources were performed. The parameters of the ensemble, representing the variety of excited spectator nuclei expected in a participant-spectator scenario, are determined empirically by searching for an optimum reproduction of the measured fragment-charge distributions and correlations. An overall very good agreement is obtained. The possible modification of the liquid-drop parameters of the fragment description in the hot freeze-out environment is studied, and a significant reduction of the symmetry-term coefficient is found necessary to reproduce the mean neutron-to-proton ratios /Z and the isoscaling parameters of Z<=10 fragments. The calculations are, furthermore, used to address open questions regarding the modification of the surface-term coefficient at freeze-out, the N/Z dependence of the nuclear caloric curve, and the isotopic evolution of the spectator system between its formation during the initial cascade stage of the reaction and its subsequent breakup., Comment: 23 pages, 29 figures, published in Physical Review C

A phase transition signature associated with cumulants of the largest fragment size distribution has been identified in statistical multifragmentation models and examined in analysis of the ALADIN S254 data on fragmentation of neutron-poor and neutron-rich projectiles. Characteristics of the transition point indicated by this signature are weakly dependent on the A/Z ratio of the fragmenting spectator source. In particular, chemical freeze-out temperatures are estimated within the range 5.9 to 6.5 MeV. The experimental results are well reproduced by the SMM model., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Multifragmentation and Related Topics (IWM2009), Catania, Italy, November 2009.

Isospin diffusion is probed as a function of the dissipated energy by studying two systems $^{58}$Ni+$^{58}$Ni and $^{58}$Ni+$^{197}$Au, over the incident energy range 52-74\AM. Experimental data are compared with the results of a microscopic transport model with two different parameterizations of the symmetry energy term. A better overall agreement between data and simulations is obtained when using a symmetry term with a potential part linearly increasing with nuclear density. The isospin equilibration time at 52 \AM{} is estimated to 130$\pm$10 fm/$c$.

Isotopic effects in projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies have been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at SIS. Stable and radioactive Sn and La beams with an incident energy of 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. Chemical freeze-out temperatures are found to be nearly invariant with respect to the A/Z ratio of the produced spectator sources, consistent with predictions for expanded systems. Consequences for the proposed interpretation of chemical breakup temperatures as representing the limiting temperatures predicted by microscopic models are discussed., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, contribution to proceedings of International School of Nuclear Physics, 30th Course, Heavy-Ion Collisions from the Coulomb Barrier to the Quark-Gluon Plasma, Erice-Sicily: 16 - 24 September 2008

The A/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at SIS. A stable beam of 124Sn and radioactive beams of 124La and 107Sn at 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. Chemical freeze-out temperatures are found to be nearly invariant with respect to the A/Z of the produced spectator sources, consistent with predictions for expanded systems. Small Coulomb effects (\Delta T \approx 0.6 MeV) appear for residue production near the onset of multifragmentation., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publ. in Phys. Rev. Lett

Isospin diffusion in semi-peripheral collisions is probed as a function of the dissipated energy by studying two systems $^{58}Ni$ + $^{58}Ni$ and $^{58}Ni$ + $^{197}Au$, over the incident energy range 52-74\AM. A close examination of the multiplicities of light products in the forward part of phase space clearly shows an influence of the isospin of the target on the neutron richness of these products. A progressive isospin diffusion is observed when collisions become more central, in connection with the interaction time.

Production cross sections of medium-mass neutron-rich nuclei obtained in the fragmentation of 136Xe projectiles at 1 A GeV have been measured with the FRagment Separator (FRS) at GSI. 125Pd was identified for the first time. The measured cross sections are compared to 238U fission yields and model calculations in order to determine the optimum reaction mechanism to extend the limits of the chart of the nuclides around the r-process waiting point at N=82., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

This paper presents the nuclide cross sections and the longitudinal velocity distributions of residues produced in the reactions of 136Xe and 124Xe at 1 A GeV in a lead target, measured at the high-resolution magnetic spectrometer, the Fragment Separator (FRS) of GSI. The data cover a broad range of isotopes of the elements between Z = 3 and Z = 56 for 136Xe and between Z = 5 and Z = 55 for 124Xe, reaching down to cross sections of a few microbarns. The velocity distributions exhibit a Gaussian shape for masses above A = 20, while more complex behaviour is observed for lighter masses. The isotopic distributions for both reactions preserve a memory on the projectile N/Z ratio over the whole residue mass range., Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, background information on http://www.gsi.de/charms

The N/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has been studied in a recent experiment at the GSI laboratory with the ALADiN forward spectrometer coupled to the LAND neutron detector. Besides a primary beam of 124Sn, also secondary beams of 124La and 107Sn delivered by the FRS fragment separator have been used in order to extend the range of isotopic compositions of the produced spectator sources. With the achieved mass resolution of \Delta A/A \approx 1.5%, lighter isotopes with atomic numbers Z \le 10 are individually resolved. The presently ongoing analyses of the measured isotope yields focus on isoscaling and its relation to the properties of hot fragments at freeze-out and on the derivation of chemical freeze-out temperatures which are found to be independent of the isotopic composition of the studied systems. The latter result is at variance with the predictions for limiting temperatures as obtained with finite-temperature Hartree-Fock calculations., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of International Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics in Heavy-Ion Reactions and Neutron Stars, Beijing, July 10-14, 2007, to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics E

Correlation functions, constructed from directional projections of the relative velocities of fragments, are used to determine the shape of the breakup volume in coordinate space. For central collisions of 129Xe + natSn at 50 MeV per nucleon incident energy, measured with the 4pi multi-detector INDRA at GSI, a prolate shape aligned along the beam direction with an axis ratio of 1:0.7 is deduced. The sensitivity of the method is discussed in comparison with conventional fragment-fragment velocity correlations., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, subm. to Phys. Lett. B

The spallation of $^{56}$Fe in collisions with hydrogen at 1 A GeV has been studied in inverse kinematics with the large-aperture setup SPALADIN at GSI. Coincidences of residues with low-center-of-mass kinetic energy light particles and fragments have been measured allowing the decomposition of the total reaction cross-section into the different possible de-excitation channels. Detailed information on the evolution of these de-excitation channels with excitation energy has also been obtained. The comparison of the data with predictions of several de-excitation models coupled to the INCL4 intra-nuclear cascade model shows that only GEMINI can reasonably account for the bulk of collected results, indicating that in a light system with no compression and little angular momentum, multifragmentation might not be necessary to explain the data., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, revised version accepted in Phys. Rev. Lett

The discriminant-analysis method has been applied to optimize the exotic-beam charge recognition in a projectile fragmentation experiment. The experiment was carried out at the GSI using the fragment separator (FRS) to produce and select the relativistic secondary beams, and the ALADIN setup to measure their fragmentation products following collisions with Sn target nuclei. The beams of neutron poor isotopes around 124La and 107Sn were selected to study the isospin dependence of the limiting temperature of heavy nuclei by comparing with results for stable 124Sn projectiles. A dedicated detector to measure the projectile charge upstream of the reaction target was not used, and alternative methods had to be developed. The presented method, based on the multivariate discriminant analysis, allowed to increase the efficacy of charge recognition up to about 90%, which was about 20% more than achieved with the simple scalar methods., Comment: 6 pages, 7 eps figures, elsart, submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A

We present an extensive overview of production cross sections and kinetic energies for the complete set of nuclides formed in the spallation of 136Xe by protons at the incident energy of 1 GeV per nucleon. The measurement was performed in inverse kinematics at the FRagment Separator (GSI, Darmstadt). Slightly below the Businaro-Gallone point, 136Xe is the stable nuclide with the largest neutron excess. The kinematic data and cross sections collected in this work for the full nuclide production are a general benchmark for modelling the spallation process in a neutron-rich nuclear system, where fission is characterised by predominantly mass-asymmetric splits., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures

The spallation residues produced in the bombardment of 56}Fe at 1.5, 1.0, 0.75, 0.5 and 0.3 A GeV on a liquid-hydrogen target have been measured using the reverse kinematics technique and the Fragment Separator at GSI (Darmstadt). This technique has permitted the full identification in charge and mass of all isotopes produced with cross-sections larger than 10^{-2} mb down to Z=8. Their individual production cross-sections and recoil velocities at the five energies are presented. Production cross-sections are compared to previously existing data and to empirical parametric formulas, often used in cosmic-ray astrophysics. The experimental data are also extensively compared to different combinations of intra-nuclear cascade and de-excitation models. It is shown that the yields of the lightest isotopes cannot be accounted for by standard evaporation models. The GEMINI model, which includes an asymmetric fission decay mode, gives an overall good agreement with the data. These experimental data can be directly used for the estimation of composition modifications and damages in materials containing iron in spallation sources. They are also useful for improving high precision cosmic-ray measurements., Comment: Submited to Phys. Rev. C (10/2006)

Using the quantum molecular dynamics approach, we analyze the results of the recent INDRA Au+Au experiments at GSI in the energy range between 60 AMeV and 150 AMeV. It turns out that in this energy region the transition toward a participant-spectator scenario takes place. The large Au+Au system displays in the simulations as in the experiment simultaneously dynamical and statistical behavior which we analyze in detail: The composition of fragments close to midrapidity follows statistical laws and the system shows bi-modality, i.e. a sudden transition between different fragmentation pattern as a function of the centrality as expected for a phase transition. The fragment spectra at small and large rapidities, on the other hand, are determined by dynamics and the system as a whole does not come to equilibrium, an observation which is confirmed by FOPI experiments for the same system., Comment: published version

An estimate of the average freeze-out volume for multifragmentation events is presented. Values of volumes are obtained by means of a simulation using the experimental charged product partitions measured by the 4pi multidetector INDRA for 129Xe central collisions on Sn at 32 AMeV incident energy. The input parameters of the simulation are tuned by means of the comparison between the experimental and simulated velocity (or energy) spectra of particles and fragments., Comment: To be published in Phys. Lett. B 12 pages, 5 figures

The production of light and intermediate-mass nuclides formed in the reaction 1H+238U at 1 GeV was measured at the Fragment Separator (FRS) at GSI, Darmstadt. The experiment was performed in inverse kinematics, shooting a 1 A GeV 238U beam on a thin liquid-hydrogen target. 254 isotopes of all elements in the range from Z=7 to Z=37 were unambiguously identified, and the velocity distributions of the produced nuclides were determined with high precision. The results show that the nuclides are produced in a very asymmetric binary decay of heavy nuclei originating from the spallation of uranium. All the features of the produced nuclides merge with the characteristics of the fission products as their mass increases., Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables

The production cross sections of fragmentation-evaporation residues in the reaction Pb+p at 500A MeV have been measured using the inverse-kinematics method and the FRS spectrometer (GSI). Fragments were identified in nuclear charge using ionisation chambers. The mass identification was performed event-by-event using the B-rho - TOF - Delta-E technique. Although partially-unresolved ionic charge states induced an ambiguity on the mass of some heavy fragments, production rates could be obtained with a high accuracy by systematically accounting for the polluting ionic charge states. The contribution of multiple reactions in the target was subtracted using a new, partly self-consistent code. The isobaric distributions are found to have a shape very close to the one observed in experiments at higher energy. Kinematic properties of the fragments were also measured. The total and the isotopic cross sections, including charge-pickup cross sections, are in good agreement with previous measurements. The data are discussed in the light of previous spallation measurements, especially on lead at 1 GeV.

Two-particle correlation functions, involving protons, deuterons, tritons, and alpha-particles, have been measured at very forward angles (0.7 deg < theta_lab < 7 deg), in order to study projectile-like fragment (PLF) emission in E/A = 44 and 77 MeV 40Ar + 27Al collisions. Peaks, originating from resonance decays, are larger at E/A = 44 than at 77 MeV. This reflects the larger relative importance of independently emitted light particles, as compared to two-particle decay from unstable fragments, at the higher beam energy. The time sequence of the light charged particles, emitted from the PLF, has been deduced from particle-velocity-gated correlation functions (discarding the contribution from resonance decays). Alpha-particles are found to have an average emission time shorter than protons but longer than tritons and deuterons., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Nuclear Physics A

Directed and elliptic flow for the Au + Au system at incident energies between 40 and 150 MeV per nucleon has been measured using the INDRA 4 pi multi-detector. For semi-central collisions, the elliptic flow of Z <= 2 particles switches from in-plane to out-of-plane enhancement at around 100 MeV per nucleon, in good agreement with the result reported by the FOPI Collaboration. The directed flow changes sign at a bombarding energy between 50 and 60 MeV per nucleon and remains negative at lower energies. The conditions for the appearance and possible origins of negative flow are discussed., Comment: 12 pages, 6 eps figures, elsart, submitted to Phys. Lett. B

Isotopic effects in the fragmentation of excited target residues following collisions of $^{12}$C on $^{112,124}$Sn at incident energies of 300 and 600 MeV per nucleon were studied with the INDRA 4$\pi$ detector. The measured yield ratios for light particles and fragments with atomic number $Z \leq$ 5 obey the exponential law of isotopic scaling. The deduced scaling parameters decrease strongly with increasing centrality to values smaller than 50% of those obtained for the peripheral event groups. Symmetry term coefficients, deduced from these data within the statistical description of isotopic scaling, are near $\gamma =$ 25 MeV for peripheral and $\gamma <$ 15 MeV for central collisions., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

Isotopically resolved cross sections and velocity distributions have been measured in charge-pickup reactions of 1 A GeV 208Pb with proton, deuterium and titanium target. The total and partial charge-pickup cross sections in the reactions 208Pb + 1H and 208Pb + 2H are measured to be the same in the limits of the error bars. A weak increase in the total charge-pickup cross section is seen in the reaction of 208Pb with the titanium target. The measured velocity distributions show different contributions - quasi-elastic scattering and Delta-resonance excitation - to the charge-pickup production. Data on total and partial charge-pickup cross sections from these three reactions are compared with other existing data and also with model calculations based on the coupling of different intra-nuclear cascade codes and an evaporation code., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, background information on http://www-w2k.gsi.de/kschmidt/

Spallation residues and fission fragments from 1A GeV 238U projectiles irradiating a liquid hydrogen target were investigated by using the FRagment Separator at GSI for magnetic selection of reaction products including ray-tracing, energy-loss and time-of-flight techniques. The longitudinal-momentum spectra of identified fragments were analysed, and evaporation residues and fission fragments could be separated. For 1385 nuclides, production cross-sections covering 3 orders of magnitude with a mean accuracy of 15%, velocities in the U-rest frame and kinetic energies were determined. In the reaction all elements from uranium to nitrogen were found, each with a large number of isotopes., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures

We look for signals of criticality in multifragment production in heavy-ion collisions using model-independent universal fluctuations theory. The phenomenon is studied as a function of system size, bombarding energy, and impact parameter in a wide range of INDRA data. For very central collisions (b/b_max

The fragmentation of the quasi-projectile is studied with the INDRA multidetector for different colliding systems and incident energies in the Fermi energy range. Different experimental observations show that a large part of the fragmentation is not compatible with the statistical fragmentation of a fully equilibrated nucleus. The study of internal correlations is a powerful tool, especially to evidence entrance channel effects. These effects have to be included in the theoretical descriptions of nuclear multifragmentation., Comment: 13 pages, 26 figures, submitted to Physical Review C

Fission fragments from 1 A GeV 238U projectiles irradiating a hydrogen target were investigated by using the fragment separator FRS for magnetic selection of reaction products including ray-tracing and DE-ToF techniques. The momentum spectra of 733 identified fragments were analysed to provide isotopic production cross sections, fission-fragment velocities and recoil momenta of the fissioning parent nuclei. Besides their general relevance, these quantities are also demanded for applications. Calculations and simulations with codes commonly used and recently developed or improved are compared to the data., Comment: 60 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables, 2 appendices (15 pages)

The production of heavy nuclides from the spallation-evaporation reaction of 238U induced by 1 GeV protons was studied in inverse kinematics. The evaporation residues from tungsten to uranium were identified in-flight in mass and atomic number. Their production cross-sections and their momentum distributions were determined. The data are compared with empirical systematics. A comparison with previous results from the spallation of 208Pb and 197Au reveals the strong influence of fission in the spallation of 238U., Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, background information at http://www-wnt.gsi.de/kschmidt/

Invariant cross sections of intermediate mass fragments in peripheral collisions of Au on Au at incident energies between 40 and 150 AMeV have been measured with the 4-pi multi-detector INDRA. The maximum of the fragment production is located near mid-rapidity at the lower energies and moves gradually towards the projectile and target rapidities as the energy is increased. Schematic calculations within an extended Goldhaber model suggest that the observed cross-section distributions and their evolution with energy are predominantly the result of the clustering requirement for the emerging fragments and of their Coulomb repulsion from the projectile and target residues. The quantitative comparison with transverse energy spectra and fragment charge distributions emphasizes the role of hard scattered nucleons in the fragmentation process., Comment: 5 pages, 5 eps figures, RevTeX4, submitted to Phys. Lett. B

A previous analysis of the charge (Z) correlations in the $\Delta Z-$ plane for Xe+Sn central collisions at 32 MeV/u has shown an enhancement in the production of equally sized fragments (low $\Delta Z$) which was interpreted as an evidence for spinodal decomposition. However the signal is weak and rises the question of the estimation of the uncorrelated yield. After a critical analysis of its robustness, we propose in this paper a new technique to build the uncorrelated yield in the charge correlation function. The application of this method to Xe+Sn central collision data at 32, 39, 45 and 50 MeV/u does not show any particular enhancement of the correlation function in any $\Delta Z$ bin., Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, revised version with an added figure and minor changes. To appear in Nuclear Physics A

Invariant transverse-velocity spectra of intermediate-mass fragments were measured with the 4-pi multi-detector system INDRA for collisions of Au on Au at incident energies between 40 and 150 MeV per nucleon. Their scaling properties as a function of incident energy and atomic number Z are used to distinguish and characterize the emissions in (i) peripheral collisions at the projectile and target rapidities, and in (ii) central and (iii) peripheral collisions near mid-rapidity. The importance of dynamical effects is evident in all three cases and their origin is discussed., Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, RevTeX4, submitted to Phys. Rev

The quasi-projectile (QP) properties are investigated in the Ar+Ni collisions at 95 A.MeV taking into account the intermediate velocity emission. Indeed, in this reaction, between 52 and 95 A.MeV bombarding energies, the number of particles emitted in the intermediate velocity region is related to the overlap volume between projectile and target. Mean transverse energies of these particles are found particularly high. In this context, the mass of the QP decreases linearly with the impact parameter from peripheral to central collisions whereas its excitation energy increases up to 8 A.MeV. These results are compared to previous analyses assuming a pure binary scenario.

Spallation residues produced in 1 GeV per nucleon $^{208}$Pb on proton reactions have been studied using the FRagment Separator facility at GSI. Isotopic produc- tion cross-sections of elements from $_{61}$Pm to $_{82}$Pb have been measured down to 0.1 mb with a high accuracy. The recoil kinetic energies of the produced fragments were also determined. The obtained cross-sections agree with most of the few existing gamma-spectroscopy data. Data are compared with different intra nuclear-cascade and evaporation-fission models. Drastic deviations were found for a standard code used in technical applications., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Revised version May 12, 2000