Two overarching aims motivated conducting this Xe + Sn cross-bombardment reaction experiment conducted by A. B. McIntosh.The first goal was the investigation of N/Z equilibration as a means to probe the density dependence of the symmetry energy in the nuclear equation-of-state at sub-nuclear densities. The symmetry energy describes fundamental properties of nuclei and nuclear matter, playing an important role in the formation of the elements and in determining properties of supernovae and neutron stars. The density dependence of the symmetry energy, though currently not well constrained, can be studied in the laboratory through peripheral and mid-peripheral heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. In these collisions, a low density region is formed between the two colliding nuclei. Due to the density dependence of the symmetry energy, a preferential flow of neutrons into this low-density region is expected. Indeed, the neutron enrichment of this region has been measured; the enrichment is manifested largely in the production of free neutrons. The second goal of the experiment was the investigation of dynamical production of intermediate-mass fragments (IMFs) in peripheral and mid-peripheral intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions and investigation of the role of composition (N/Z) in such decays. To investigate dynamical decay and study the density dependence of the symmetry energy, an experiment was conducted at the GANIL (Grand Accel ́ erateur National d’Ions ́Lourds) accelerator facility in Caen, France. The coupled cyclotrons of GANIL were used to accelerate beams of 124Xe and 136Xe to 49.2 MeV/u with an average intensity of ≈108 particles/sec. These beams were focused onto targets of high-purity 112Sn (800 μg/cm2) and 124Sn (830 μg/cm2). These four beam-target combinations constitute a cross-bombardment reaction, having both N/Z asymmetric and N/Z near-symmetric reactions, as is evident in table 2.1.

Table 2.1: N/Z composition for the various beam and target combinations.

	Z	N	N/Z
124Xe	54	70	1.30
136Xe	54	82	1.52
112Sn	50	62	1.24
124Sn	50	74	1.48

Thesis:

BINARY AND TERNARY BREAKUP OF EXCITED PROJECTILE-LIKE FRAGMENTS PRODUCED IN COLLISIONS OF 124,136Xe NUCLEI WITH 112,124Sn TARGETS AT E/A = 50 MeV

Papers

How much cooler would it be with some more neutrons? Exploring the asymmetry dependence of the nuclear caloric curve and the liquid-gas phase transition

Using light charged particles to probe the asymmetry dependence of the nuclear caloric curve

Asymmetry dependence of the nuclear caloric curve

Progress in constraining the asymmetry dependence of the nuclear caloric curve