Energy Division in Damped Reactions

Nuclear charges and kinetic energies were measured for fragments resulting from reactions of ${}_{}{}^{58}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ni}$ + ${}_{}{}^{58}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ni}$ and ${}_{}{}^{58}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ni}$ + ${}_{}{}^{197}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Au}$ at 15.3-MeV/u incident energy. These data suggest a nonequilibrium division of the available excitation energy between target and projectile for a large range of energy losses. This interpretation is supported by a consistent analysis of more complete data available for the ${}_{}{}^{56}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Fe}$ + ${}_{}{}^{165}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Ho}$ reaction at 8.5-MeV/u incident energy.