ON A POSSIBILITY TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN SEQUENTIAL AND PROMPT MULTIFRAGMENTATION IN EXPERIMENTS

Predictions on ratios between the yield of light isotopes (Li, Be, B a nd C) from Sn-112 and Sn-124 nuclei from a microcanonical multifragmen tation model and a sequential evaporation model are compared at excita tion 175-800 MeV. Secondary decay does not affect these ratios signifi cantly, which make them useful to estimate the excitation energy at th e instant of fragmentation. The excitation energy dependence agrees we ll except for a local minimum near the onset of multifragmentation pre dicted only by the microcanonical model due to coupling between exit c hannels. This offers a way to distinguish between the models by measur ing the relative yields of fragments from target residues differing si gnificantly only in their neutron numbers.