With the ALADIN forward spectrometer the fragmentation of gold nuclei at 600 MeV per nucleon after interaction with carbon, aluminum, copper, and lead targets has been investigated. The results are compared to quantum-molecular-dynamics (QMD) calculations using soft and hard equations of state as well as a soft equation of state with momentum-dependent forces. Whereas the QMD has been successfully applied to heavy ion collisions at lower energies, it is not possible to reproduce the fragment distributions and the light-particle multiplicities observed in this experiment at relativistic energies. To study the reasons for the discrepancy between the experimental data and the simulations we investigated the time evolution of the nuclear system after a collision and the disintegration pattern of excited nuclei in the QMD approach.

• Received 17 February 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.48.610