Evidence for Spinodal Decomposition in Nuclear Multifragmentation

B. Borderie (1) , G. Tabacaru (1) , P. Chomaz (2) , M. Colonna , A. Guarnera , M. Pârlog , M. F Rivet (1) , G. Auger (2) , C.O. Bacri (1) , N. Bellaize (3) , R. Bougault (3) , B. Bouriquet (2) , R. Brou (3) , P. Buchet , A. Chbihi (2) , J. Colin (3) , A. Demeyer (4) , E. Galichet , E. Gerlic (4) , D. Guinet (4) , S. Hudan (2) , P. Lautesse (4) , F. Lavaud (1) , J.L. Laville (2) , J.F. Lecolley (3) , C. Leduc (4) , R. Legrain , N. Le Neindre (3) , O. Lopez (3) , M. Louvel (3) , A.-M. Maskay (4) , J. Normand (3) , P. Pawlowski (1) , E. Rosato , F. Saint-Laurent (2) , J.C. Steckmeyer (3) , B. Tamain (3) , L. Tassan-Got (1) , E. Vient (3) , J.P. Wieleczko (2)

1 IPNO - Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay
2 GANIL - Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds
3 LPCC - Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen
4 IPNL - Institut de Physique Nucléaire de Lyon

Multifragmentation of a ``fused system\'\' was observed for central collisions between 32 MeV/nucleon 129Xe and natSn. Most of the resulting charged products were well identified thanks to the high performances of the INDRA 4pi array. Experimental higher-order charge correlations for fragments show a weak but non ambiguous enhancement of events with nearly equal-sized fragments. Supported by dynamical calculations in which spinodal decomposition is simulated, this observed enhancement is interpreted as a ``fossil\'\' signal of spinodal instabilities in finite nuclear systems.

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

B. Borderie, G. Tabacaru, P. Chomaz, M. Colonna, A. Guarnera, et al.. Evidence for Spinodal Decomposition in Nuclear Multifragmentation. Physical Review Letters, 2001, 86, pp.3252-3255. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.3252⟩. ⟨hal-00012240⟩