Measurement of the space-time extent of the hard-photon emitting source in heavy-ion collisions at 100 MeV/nucleon

The correlation between the couples of high-energy photons (E{sub {gamma}}{gt}30MeV) detected in the reactions induced by a {sup 36}Ar beam on {sup 27}Al, {sup 112}Sn, and {sup 197}Au targets at 95 MeV/nucleon has been analyzed with the intensity interferometry technique. Both the size and lifetime of the emitting source have been quantitatively evaluated. Results support the nucleon-nucleon picture as the dominant hard-photon production mechanism. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}