Fragmentation of gold projectiles with energies of 200–980 MeV/nucleon. I. Experimental method, charge yields, and transverse momenta

Abstract

A stack containing plastic nuclear track detectors and Ag target foils was exposed to a $^{197}\mathrm{Au}$ beam with an energy of 980 MeV/nucleon. The analysis was restricted to energies between beam energy and 200 MeV/nucleon. 2496 collisions with Ag target nuclei and 4114 with the lighter constituents H, C, and O of the detector material were analyzed in detail. For all interactions, projectile fragments with charge ${\mathit{Z}}_{\mathit{F}}$\ensuremath{\ge}6 were measured and their emission angles were determined. This paper describes the experiment and presents charge yields and results about transverse momenta for events with different multiplicities. Details of multiplicity distributions, correlations between fragments and signatures related to multifragmentation as a critical process are discussed in a separate paper.