Evidence for a nuclear phase transition in target nuclei after relativistic nuclear interactions
A. Dabrowska, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
R. Hołyński, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
A. Olszewski, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
M. Szarska, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
A. Trzupek, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
B. Wilczyńska, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
H. Wilczyński, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
W. Wolter, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
B. Wosiek, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
K. Woźniak, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
K. Zalewski, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
M. L. Cherry, Louisiana State University
W. V. Jones, Louisiana State University
K. Sengupta, Louisiana State University
J. P. Wefel, Louisiana State University
P. S. Freier, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
C. J. Waddington, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Abstract
The degree of excitation of the emulsion target nuclei due to nuclear interactions of oxygen and sulfur projectiles at 200 GeV/nucleon incident energy has been investigated. Using the plausible assumption that the number Nb of slow particles emitted from the struck target nucleus can be interpreted as a measure of the temperature T of the residual nucleus, we have found that there exists a critical temperature Tc of the excited target nucleus. For Ag and Br target nuclei this temperature corresponds to {all equal to}12 and it is attained when the impact parameters are less than about 4 fm. © 1993 Springer-Verlag.
