Hadron-induced multifragmentation

摘要

For light-ion-induced reactions in the bombarding energy regime 1-10 GeV, dramatic changes occur for inclusive observables associated with highly excited heavy residues.~1 For example, the excitation functions for IMF production (IMF:3<=Z<=15) increase by more than two ordeers of magnitude over this energy range-while the N-N to-tal scattering cross section change only gradually. This has been interpreted in terms of large deposition energies in the residue, giving rise to multifragmentation events. Subsequent 4pi studies~2 have verified this interpretation and further shown that the most highly excited residues are produced with very low velocities (v/capprox0.01). This latter fact suggests the importance of baryonic resonances in the excitation process; the former demonstrates that ligh-ion-induced reactions create hot, multifragmenting systems that can be observed in the laboratory with minimal kinematic distortion.