Pre-equilibrium α-particle emission as a probe to study α-clustering in nuclei

A theoretical approach was developed to describe secondary particle emission in heavy ion collisions, with special regards to pre-equilibrium α-particle production. The probabilities of neutron, proton and α-particle emission have been evaluated for both the equilibrium and pre-equilibrium stages of the process. Effects due the possible cluster structure of the projectile which has been excited during the collisions have been experimentally evidenced studying the double differential cross sections of p and α-particles emitted in the E=250MeV 16O + 116Sn reaction. Calculations within the present model with different clusterization probabilities have been compared to the experimental data. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014.