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G. V. Margagliotti

Publications and source records attributed to G. V. Margagliotti.

18 recordsLinked to original sources

INFN What Next: Ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

This document was prepared by the community that is active in Italy, within INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), in the field of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The experimental study of the phase diagram of strongly-interacting matter and of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) deconfined state will proceed, in the next 10-15 years, along two directions: the high-energy regime at RHIC and at the LHC, and the low-energy regime at FAIR, NICA, SPS and RHIC. The Italian community is strongly involved in the present and future programme of the ALICE experiment, the upgrade of which will open, in the 2020s, a new phase of high-precision characterisation of the QGP properties at the LHC. As a complement of this main activity, there is a growing interest in a possible future experiment at the SPS, which would target the search for the onset of deconfinement using dimuon measurements. On a longer timescale, the community looks with interest at the ongoing studies and discussions on a possible fixed-target programme using the LHC ion beams and on the Future Circular Collider.

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Size and asymmetry of the reaction entrance channel: influence on the probability of neck production

The results of experiments performed to investigate the Ni+Al, Ni+Ni, Ni+Ag reactions at 30 MeV/nucleon are presented. From the study of dissipative midperipheral collisions, it has been possible to detect events in which Intermediate Mass Fragments (IMF) production takes place. The decay of a quasi-projectile has been identified; its excitation energy leads to a multifragmentation totally described in terms of a statistical disassembly of a thermalized system (T$\simeq$4 MeV, E$^*\simeq$4 MeV/nucleon). Moreover, for the systems Ni+Ni, Ni+Ag, in the same nuclear reaction, a source with velocity intermediate between that of the quasi-projectile and that of the quasi-target, emitting IMF, is observed. The fragments produced by this source are more neutron rich than the average matter of the overall system, and have a charge distribution different, with respect to those statistically emitted from the quasi-projectile. The above features can be considered as a signature of the dynamical origin of the midvelocity emission. The results of this analysis show that IMF can be produced via different mechanisms simultaneously present within the same collision. Moreover, once fixed the characteristics of the quasi-projectile in the three considered reactions (in size, excitation energy and temperature), one observes that the probability of a partner IMF production via dynamical mechanism has a threshold (not present in the Ni+Al case) and increases with the size of the target nucleus.

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Isotopic composition of fragments in multifragmentation of very large nuclear systems: effects of the chemical equilibrium

Studies on the isospin of fragments resulting from the disassembly of highly excited large thermal-like nuclear emitting sources, formed in the ^{197}Au + ^{197}Au reaction at 35 MeV/nucleon beam energy, are presented. Two different decay systems (the quasiprojectile formed in midperipheral reactions and the unique source coming from the incomplete fusion of projectile and target in the most central collisions) were considered; these emitting sources have the same initial N/Z ratio and excitation energy (E^* ~= 5--6 MeV/nucleon), but different size. Their charge yields and isotopic content of the fragments show different distributions. It is observed that the neutron content of intermediate mass fragments increases with the size of the source. These evidences are consistent with chemical equilibrium reached in the systems. This fact is confirmed by the analysis with the statistical multifragmentation model.

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Critical behaviors in central and peripheral collisions: a comparative analysis

Quasi-projectile events from peripheral 35 A.MeV Au+ Au collisions are compared to central Au + C, Au + Cu and Au + Au events in the same range of excitation energy in terms of critical partitions and critical exponents. All the different data sets coherently point to a value E*c=4.5 A.MeV for the apparent critical excitation energy. The critical exponents tau, sigma are compatible with the observation of a liquid-gas phase transition for these systems.

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On the reliability of negative heat capacity measurements

A global protocol for the thermostatistical analysis of hot nuclear sources is discussed. Within our method of minimization of variances we show that the abnormal kinetic energy fluctuation signal recently reported in different experimental data (M.D'Agostino et al.-Phys. Lett. B 473 (2000) 219, N. Le Neindre et al.- contr. to the XXXVIII Bormio Winter Meeting on Nucl. Phys. (2001) 404) is a genuine signal of a first order phase transition in a finite system.

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Strong enhancement of extremely energetic proton production in central heavy ion collisions at intermediate energy

The energetic proton emission has been investigated as a function of the reaction centrality for the system 58Ni + 58Ni at 30A MeV. Extremely energetic protons (EpNN > 130 MeV) were measured and their multiplicity is found to increase almost quadratically with the number of participant nucleons thus indicating the onset of a mechanism beyond one and two-body dynamics.

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Contemporary presence of dynamical and statistical production of intermediate mass fragments in midperipheral $^{58}$Ni+$^{58}$Ni collisions at 30 MeV/nucleon

The $^{58}Ni+^{58}Ni$ reaction at 30 MeV/nucleon has been experimentally investigated at the Superconducting Cyclotron of the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud. In midperipheral collisions the production of massive fragments (4$\le$Z$\le$12), consistent with the statistical fragmentation of the projectile-like residue and the dynamical formation of a neck, joining projectile-like and target-like residues, has been observed. The fragments coming from these different processes differ both in charge distribution and isotopic composition. In particular it is shown that these mechanisms leading to fragment production act contemporarily inside the same event.

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Isotopic Composition of Fragments in Nuclear Multifragmentation

The isotope yields of fragments, produced in the decay of the quasiprojectile in Au+Au peripheral collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon and those coming from the disassembly of the unique source formed in Xe+Cu central reactions at 30 MeV/nucleon, were measured. We show that the relative yields of neutron-rich isotopes increase with the excitation energy in multifragmentation reaction. In the framework of the statistical multifragmentation model which fairly well reproduces the experimental observables, this behaviour can be explained by increasing N/Z ratio of hot primary fragments, that corresponds to the statistical evolution of the decay mechanism with the excitation energy: from a compound-like decay to complete multifragmentation.

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Antiproton transfer from antiprotonic Helium to noble gas contaminants

The state dependent quenching mechanism of metastable antiprotonic He atoms by contaminants is suggested to explain existing experimental data. The effect of antiproton transfer from the antiprotonic He to noble gas contaminants is shown to play a significant role. Preliminary estimations have been done in the framework of the coupled channels model. The obtained results support the idea of strong dependence of quenching cross-sections on the antiprotonic states quantum numbers and enable to explain qualitatively existing discrepancies between experimental results, obtained for different contaminant densities. New observable effects are predicted.

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A statistical interpretation of the correlation between intermediate mass fragment multiplicity and transverse energy

Multifragment emission following Xe+Au collisions at 30, 40, 50 and 60 AMeV has been studied with multidetector systems covering nearly 4-pi in solid angle. The correlations of both the intermediate mass fragment and light charged particle multiplicities with the transverse energy are explored. A comparison is made with results from a similar system, Xe+Bi at 28 AMeV. The experimental trends are compared to statistical model predictions.

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Negative heat capacity in the critical region of nuclear fragmentation: an experimental evidence of the liquid-gas phase transition

An experimental indication of negative heat capacity in excited nuclear systems is inferred from the event by event study of energy fluctuations in $Au$ quasi-projectile sources formed in $Au+Au$ collisions at 35 A.MeV. The excited source configuration is reconstructed through a calorimetric analysis of its de-excitation products. Fragment partitions show signs of a critical behavior at about 5 A.MeV excitation energy. In the same energy range the heat capacity shows a negative branch providing a direct evidence of a first order liquid gas phase transition.

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Thermodynamical features of multifragmentation in peripheral Au + Au Collisions at 35 A.MeV

The distribution of fragments produced in events involving the multifragmentation of excited sources is studied for peripheral Au + Au reactions at 35 A.MeV. The Quasi-Projectile has been reconstructed from its de-excitation products. An isotropic emission in its rest frame has been observed, indicating that an equilibrated system has been formed. The excitation energy of the Quasi-Projectile has been determined via calorimetry. A new event by event effective thermometer is proposed based on the energy balance. A peak in the energy fluctuations is observed related to the heat capacity, suggesting that the system undergoes a liquid-gas type phase transition at an excitation energy about 5 A.MeV and a temperature 4 - 6 MeV, dependent on the freeze-out hypothesis. By analyzing different regions of the Campi-plot, the events associated with the liquid and gas phases as well as the critical region are thermodynamically characterized. The critical exponents, tau, beta,gamma, extracted from the high moments of the charge distribution are consistent with a liquid-gas type phase transition.

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Critical Behavior in Peripheral Au + Au Collisions at 35 MeV/u

The signals theoretically predicted for the occurrence of a critical behavior (conditional moments of charge distributions, Campi scatter plot, fluctuations of the size of the largest fragment, power law in the charge distribution, intermittency) have been found for peripheral events in the reaction Au+Au at 35 MeV/u. The same signals have been studied with a dynamical model which foresees phase transition, like the Classical Molecular Dynamics.

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Searching for the Nuclear Liquid-Gas Phase Transition in Au + Au Collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon

Within the framework of Classical Molecular Dynamics, we study the collision Au + Au at an incident energy of 35 MeV/nucleon. It is found that the system shows a critical behaviour at peripheral impact parameters, revealed through the analysis of conditional moments of charge distributions, Campi Scatter Plot, and the occurrence of large fluctuations in the region of the Campi plot where this critical behaviour is expected. When applying the experimental filters of the MULTICS-MINIBALL apparatus, it is found that criticality signals can be hidden due to the inefficiency of the experimental apparatus. The signals are then recovered by identifying semi-peripheral and peripheral collisions looking to the velocity distribution of the largest fragment, then by selecting the most complete events.

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Signals of a Critical Behavior in Peripheral Au + Au Collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon

Multifragment events resulting from peripheral Au + Au collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon are analysed in terms of critical behavior. The analysis of most of criticality signals proposed so far (conditional moments of charge distributions, Campi scatter plot, fluctuations of the size of the largest fragment, intermittency analysis) is consistent with the occurrence of a critical behavior of the system.

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Statistical Multifragmentation in Central Au+Au Collisions at 35 MeV/u

Multifragment disintegrations, measured for central Au + Au collisions at E/A = 35 MeV, are analyzed with the Statistical Multifragmentation Model. Charge distributions, mean fragment energies, and two-fragment correlation functions are well reproduced by the statistical breakup of a large, diluted and thermalized system slightly above the multifragmentation threshold.

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Multifragment production in Au+Au at 35 MeV/u

Multifragment disintegration has been measured with a high efficiency detection system for the reaction $Au + Au$ at $E/A = 35\ MeV$. From the event shape analysis and the comparison with the predictions of a many-body trajectories calculation the data, for central collisions, are compatible with a fast emission from a unique fragment source.

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