N / Z Equilibration in Deep Inelastic Collisions and the Fragmentation of the Resulting

N/Z Equilibration in Deep Inelastic Collisions and the Fragmentation of the Resulting Quasiprojectiles. (May 2007) August Lawrence Keksis, B.S., Northern Arizona University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Sherry J. Yennello When target and projectile nuclei have a difference in neutron to proton ratio (N/Z), the quasiprojectiles formed in a deep inelastic collision (DIC) should have a mean N/Z between the N/Z of the target and the N/Z of the projectile, depending on the amount of N/Z equilibration that occurred. Data from six reaction systems at two beam energies (32 and 45 MeV/nucleon) were collected. The systems in order of increasing difference between target and projectile N/Z (shown in parentheses) are Ar + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.018), Ca + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.080), Ca + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.160), Ca + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.240), Ar + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.258) and Ca + Sn (∆N/Z = 0.480). The quasiprojectile N/Z was determined by two techniques. The first technique used the isotopically resolved fragments to reconstruct the quasiprojectile N/Z. The second technique, developed in this thesis, used fragment yield ratios and a simple equation to simultaneously fit all six systems to determine the quasiprojectile N/Z. Simulations and a filter of the FAUST (Forward Array Using Silicon Technology) acceptance were used to calculate neutron loss; this accounted for the difference between the two techniques. To study the fragmentation of quasiprojectiles the fragment yields were used to calculate the isobaric, isotopic, fractional and mean N/Z yields. The results showed that as neutron richness increased, more neutron-rich fragments were produced. In