Heating Au-197 nuclei with 8 GeV/c antiproton and pi(-) beams

Comparison of the heating effect produced by 8 GeV/c pi(-) and antiproton b eams incident on Au-197 nuclei has been conducted with the Indiana silicon sphere 4 pi detector array. Event reconstruction indicates formation of the rmal-like heavy residues with excitation energies up to 1.7 GeV. Enhanced e nergy deposition is observed for antiprotons relative to negative pions. Fo r events with excitation energies that exceed 1000 MeV, there is a 50% incr ease in cross section for the antiproton beam relative to the pi(-) beam. T he predominant decay mode at these high excitation energies is multifragmen tation in which three or more Z greater than or equal to 3 fragments are em itted.