Early-reaction-phase energy transformation in heavy-ion reactions below 100 MeV/u

An extensive study of maximal values that the main forms of energy take during the compact dynamical phase of heavy-ion reactions has been carried out within the framework of a semiclassical transport approach. Several systems having different total mass and asymmetry have been studied over a full range of impact parameter and a wide range of incident energies below 100 MeV/u. It has been found that maxima of compression and thermal energy as a function of impact parameter closely follow the reaction geometry in the spirit of the participant–spectator picture and in head-on collisions are proportional to the available center-of-mass energy. Indication of a smooth transition between the low-energy reaction mechanism (deep inelastic model) and the higher-energy reaction mechanism (participant–spectator-like geometrical picture) is identified around the Fermi energy.