Evolution from Sequential Decay to Simultaneous Multifragmentation with Increasing Beam Energy

Two-fragment correlation functions have been measured for ⁴⁰Ar+¹⁹⁷Au collisions at E/A = 25MeV. Based on the three-body trajectory calculation, a mean emission time of τ ~ 450 fm/c for light fragments was extracted from the measured correlation functions. This result suggests that the sequential decay occurs at this energy.