EVIDENCE FOR THE REDUCIBILITY OF MULTIFRAGMENT EMISSION TO AN ELEMENTARY BINARY EMISSION IN XE-INDUCED REACTIONS

Multifragmentation for Xe-129-induced reactions on several targets (Cu -nat, Y-89, Ho-165, Au-197) has been studied at E/A = 40, 50 and 60 Me V. The probability of emitting n intermediate mass fragments is shown to be binomial at each transversal energy and reducible to an elementa ry binary probability p. For each target and at each bombarding energy , p shows a thermal behavior as demonstrated by linear Arrhenius plots . A nearly universal linear Arrhenius plot is observed at each bombard ing energy, independent of target. The sensitivity of p to the Z(thres hold) points to its physical significance and rules out auto-correlati on effects.