Flow and multifragmentation of Mg-24+Al-27 at intermediate energies - art.no. 024611

An elaborated investigation was done into the reaction mechanism of heavy i on collisions at intermediate energies of small nuclear systems. Experiment al data measured with the Huygens detectors and isospin quantum molecular d ynamics (IQMD) simulations of Mg-24+Al-27 at 45 and 95A MeV were analyzed w ith respect to the impact-parameter selection, the in-plane flow and the IM F production at midrapidity. It was found that only the midcentral impact-p arameter class could be identified effectively. The event-plane reconstruct ion and flow measurements were studied with IQMD and a GEANT detector simul ation. This showed that the azimuthal-correlation method gives the best rec onstruction. The experimentally measured in-plane flow was consistent with the balancing energy derived from literature of 114+/- 10A MeV. The azimuth al correlations and polar-angle distributions of IMF's emitted at midrapidi ty were used to distinguish between a dynamic scenario, i.e., IQMD, and a s tatistical scenario described by a simple decaying-source model. The IQMD s imulations were in good agreement with the experimental data while a single decaying-source simulation fails to describe the data which shows that mul tifragmentation in these small systems is consistent with a dynamic process .