KINEMATICAL PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF VAPORIZING SOURCES - IS THERMODYNAMICAL EQUILIBRIUM ACHIEVED

Kinematical properties and chemical composition of vaporizing sources observed in heavy-ion collisions are presented. Vaporizing sources det ected with the 4 pi array INDRA, are defined as sources for which all detected species have atomic numbers lower than 3. The excitation ener gy of the sources covers a very broad range (6-28 AMeV), The occurrenc e of thermodynamical equilibrium is discussed by comparing the data wi th the results of two statistical models, The model describing a gas i n thermal and chemical equilibrium reproduces rather well the data sug gesting that thermodynamical equilibrium may have been reached for suc h sources.