Hot nuclei in reactions induced by heavy projectiles, protons and antiprotons

Abstract : Light projectiles like protons and antiprotons with several GeV kinetic energy enable a very efficient heating of nuclei, similar to what is routinely achieved in nucleus-nucleus collisions. At the same time, the excitation of the collective modes in nuclei is minimized, making possible for the first time the study of the heat effects exclusively. The scarcity of muhifragmentaiion in antiproton induced reactions on heavy targets seems to show that when such a phenomenon occurs in a nucleus-nucleus collisions il is most likely driven by initial compression and angular momentum rather than heat.