The excitation energy of the primary products from the reaction ${}_{}{}^{56}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Fe}$ on ${}_{}{}^{165}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ho}$ at 672 MeV was determined by the kinematic coincidence technique. The fraction of the total excitation energy of the system stored in the projectilelike fragment was found to decrease with increasing energy loss. However, thermal equilibrium is not reached, even at the highest energy damping. A small correlation between excitation energy partition and reaction exit channel was observed. Monte Carlo simulations of the present experiment confirmed that some of this correlation is due to the finite resolution of the measured parameters. © 1996 The American Physical Society.

• Received 11 January 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.54.1291