MULTIFRAGMENTATION IN E/A = 35 MEV COLLISIONS : EVIDENCE FOR A COULOMB DRIVEN BREAKUP ?

Multifragment disintegrations have been measured for central Au+Au collisions at {ital E}/{ital A}=35 MeV. Fragment emission occurs predominantly at low center of mass energies of about {ital E}/{ital A}{approx_equal}5 MeV, consistent with a Coulomb dominated breakup of a single source. Mean fragment multiplicities of {l_angle}{ital N}{sub IMF}{r_angle}{approx_equal}10.8 are extracted after correction for the detection efficiency. The fragment charge distributions decrease much more gradually than expected from scaling laws recently applied to the extraction of critical exponents for the nuclear liquid-gas phase transition from nuclear collisions. {copyright} {ital 1995 The American Physical Society.}