On mass and charge distributions in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

A statistical model based on the independent particle picture is used to calculate mass and charge distributions in deep inelastic heavy ion collisions. Different assumptions on volume and charge equilibration are treated and compared with measured variances of charge distributions. One combination of assumptions is clearly favoured by experiment and gives a reasonable description of the variance versus energy loss curves up to energy losses of about 200 MeV in Kr+Ho and Xe+Bi reactions.