| The investigation for this dissertation involved reactions of a series of isobaric nuclei (same mass but different charge) on a gold target at 32 MeV/nucleon. The projectiles used were 20F, 20Ne and 20Na. The reaction 20F + nat.Ag was also studied. A forward array detector (FAUST) was constructed to observe the decay of excited projectiles. The motivation for this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between the multifragmentation of a nucleus and its neutron-to-proton ratio. The decay of the projectiles was analyzed to ascertain both the mechanisms for excitation and decay.; Through comparison with theoretical models, it was shown that the excitation process occurs via the transfer of nucleons between the target and projectile while they are in contact. Also, this process leads to a net transfer of nucleons either into or out of the projectile, thus changing the mass of the original projectile thus resulting in a quasi-projectile (QP). This mass change allows for the study of multifragmentation over a broad range of N/Z values. It was found that there is little difference between the reactions for the excitation energy, temperature. However for the fragment yield ratios there is a strong dependence on the (N/Z)QP. With respect to the mechanism for decay there is good evidence for a simultaneous breakup into several fragments. |
