Multifragmentation induced by light relativistic projectiles and heavy ions: Similarities and differences

Experimental data on the multiplicities of fragments, their energy and char ge distributions, and the emission times are considered for nuclear multifr agmentation induced by relativistic light projectiles (protons, helium) and heavy ions. In the case of light projectiles, multifragmentation is a pure ly "thermal" process well described by statistical models. Multifragmentati on induced by heavy ions is affected by dynamical effects associated first of all with the compression of the system in the collision process. Statist ical models can be used to describe the disintegration of the system in que stion, provided that the excitation energy is less than 10 MeV/nucleon, in which case compression is modest. The statistical approach fails to reprodu ce data in the case of central collision of heavy ions.