Isotopic Scaling and the Symmetry Energy in Spectator Fragmentation

Isotopic effects in the fragmentation of excited target residues following collisions of $^{12}$C on $^{112,124}$Sn at incident energies of 300 and 600 MeV per nucleon were studied with the INDRA 4$\pi$ detector. The measured yield ratios for light particles and fragments with atomic number $Z \leq$ 5 obey the exponential law of isotopic scaling. The deduced scaling parameters decrease with increasing centrality to values as low as $\alpha = 0.25 \pm 0.02$ for the central event group at 600 MeV per nucleon. Symmetry term coefficients, deduced from these data within the statistical description of isotopic scaling, are near $\gamma =$ 25 MeV for peripheral and $\gamma <$ 10 MeV for central collisions.