Multifragmentation of Au induced by 14.6 GeV {sup 4}He

The multifragmentation reaction channel was investigated in 14.6 GeV {sup 4}He+Au interactions. The experimental setup enabled event-by-event analysis. An internal correlation study suggests a nearly simultaneous emission of fragments. The velocities (V{sub c.m.}) of the center-of-mass system of correlated fragments were calculated. The transverse component of V{sub c.m.} with respect to the beam direction has higher values than the longitudinal one, which corresponds to large recoil angles of the source. The angular distributions of fragments are sideways peaked. The peak angle is dependent on the atomic number of fragment and multiplicity. Our results show that the heaviest fragment in one event corresponds, on average, to the largest emission angle, the second heaviest fragment corresponds to the second largest emission angle, and so on.