MULTIFRAGMENTATION OF THERMALIZED RESIDUAL NUCLEI IN INTERMEDIATE-ENERGY HEAVY-ION COLLISIONS

Nucleus-nucleus reactions leading to the copious production of intermediate mass fragments are considered as a two-stage process. The first nonequilibrium stage of the reactions is simulated by the intranuclear cascade model and (preequilibrium emission) exciton model. At the equilibrium stage of the reaction thermalized residual nuclei (TRN) undergo a multifragment break-up which is described within the framework of the statistical multifragmentation model. The comparison to experimental correlation characteristics of intermediate mass fragments allows us to extract the important information concerning the actual masses and excitation energies of TRN.