The excitation energy and the nuclear density at the time of breakup a
re extracted for the alpha+Au-197 reaction at beam energies of 1 and 3
.6 GeV/nucleon. These quantities are calculated from the average relat
ive velocity of intermediate mass fragments (IMF) at large correlation
angles as a function of the multiplicity of IMFs using a statistical
model coupled with many-body Coulomb trajectory calculations. The Coul
omb component upsilon(c) and thermal component upsilon0 are found to d
epend oppositely on the excitation energy, IMFs multiplicity, and free
ze-out density. These dependencies allow the determination of both the
volume and the mean excitation energy at the time of breakup. It is f
ound that the volume remained constant as the beam energy was increase
d, with a breakup density of about rho0/7, but that the excitation ene
rgy increased 25% to about 5.5 MeV/nucleon.