Analysis of charged particle emission sources and coalescence in E/A=61 MeV36Ar+27Al, 112Sn and 124Sn collisions

Single-particle kinetic energy spectra and two-particle small angle correlations of protons (p), deuterons (d) and tritons (t) have been measured simultaneously in 61 A MeV Ar-36 + Al-27, Sn-112 and Sn-124 collisions. Characteristics of the emission sources have been derived from a "source identification plot" (beta(source)-E-CM plot), constructed from the single-particle invariant spectra, and compared to the complementary results from two-particle correlation functions. Furthermore, the source identification plot has been used to determine the conditions when the coalescence mechanism can be applied for composite particles. In our data, this is the case only for the Ar + Al reaction, where p, d and t are found to originate from a common source of emission (from the overlap region between target and projectile). In this case, the coalescence model parameter, (p) over tilde (0)-the radius of the complex particle emission source in momentum space, has been analyzed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.