Very-high energy (E. -->. E/sub beam/) light particle production near O/sup 0/ in heavy-ion collisions, E/A less than or equal to 40 MeV/u

Studies of heavy-ion collisions at E/A approx. 10 MeV/u to 20 MeV/u with the production of nucleons and other particles at forward angles with velocities several times that of the projectile have been observed by many groups (TAM, ORNL, MSU, HMI). This is usually attributed to projectile fragmentation with Fermi motion of the light particle which is often described by a source temperature T/sub s/, accounting for the additional velocity component. However, experiments reported by Borcea et al. and those done at the Hahn-Meitner Institute (VIKSI) have suggested that high-energy alpha particles observed near theta = O/sup 0/ in /sup 20/Ne-induced collisions, E/A less than or equal to 20 MeV/u, may arise from mechanisms such as cluster transfer reactions. Here we report observation of a similar phenomenon with a variety of projectiles (Z greater than or equal to 8), E/A = 9 to 40 MeV/u.