Isotopic yields as a probe of the symmetry energy: dealing with the secondary decay effects

The impact of the secondary de-excitation on isotopic distributions commonly used as observable to extract information on the symmetry energy is pointed out. A comparison of three methods differently affected by secondary decay shows a good agreement of the results up to A = 20, suggesting a lack of secondary decay effects in our data within our resolution. Data from the 4π detector INDRA and the VAMOS spectrometer could extend this work to higher A. The same data allow us to perform a primary fragment reconstruction, which opens up the possibility of planning a program on charged particle spectroscopy of exotic nuclei.