Breakup time scale studied in the 8 GeV/c pi- + 197Au reaction
  Experimental data from the reaction of an 8.0 GeV/c pi- beam incident on a 197Au target have been analyzed in order to investigate the integrated breakup time scale for hot residues. Alpha-particle energy spectra and particle angular distributions supported by a momentum tensor analysis suggest that at large excitation energy, above 3-5 MeV/nucleon, light-charged particles are emitted prior to or at the same time as the emission of the heavy fragments. Comparison with the SMM and GEMINI models is presented. A binary fission-like mechanism fits the experimental data at low excitation energies, but seems unable to reproduce the data at excitation energies above 3-5 MeV/nucleon. 
L.Pienkowski, K.Kwiatkowski, T.Lefort, W.-c.Hsi, L.Beaulieu,   A.Botvina, B.Back, H.Breuer, S.Gushue, R.G.Korteling, R.Lafor...