Momentum transfer to the target in peripheral collisions of relativistic heavy ions

The angular correlations between coincident fission fragments emitted in the reactions of /sup 197/Au with 5-GeV protons, 1.25-GeV/nucleon /sup 4/He, and 0.25--2.10-GeV/nucleon /sup 20/Ne were measured. The longitudinal momentum transfer to the target calculated from these correlations increased with increasing mass loss from the target and was inversely proportional to the projectile velocity, independent of projectile mass. These observations are shown to be consistent with simple two-body models of peripheral reactions.