Dynamical intermediate-mass fragment production in197Au+197Au collisions at energies ≤15 MeV/u

We present radiochemical data on the production of intermediate-mass fragments (IMF, 11≤Z<≈25) in collisions of197Au+197Au at 9, 11, 13 and 15 MeV/u. We demonstrate that the IMFs are produced in two-step reactions: Highly excited heavy nuclei are formed in a binary deep-inelastic reaction, and the IMFs originate from fast mass-asymmetric sequential fission of these primary reaction products.