The goal of the FAZIA Collaboration is the design of a new-generation 4 πdetector array for heavy-ion collisions with radioactive beams. This article summarizes the main results of the R&D phase,...

Equilibrium constants for hydrogen and helium isotopes as a function of density and temperature are measured in the framework of the study made by Qin et al [2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 172701]. We review and comment on all stages of the analysis and conclude that our measurements are not inconsistent with the results of Qin et al . Improvements are being made to the initial analysis and we raise the issue of the binding energies which has to be clarified.

Background: The isovector part of the nuclear equation of state remains partly unknown and is the subject of many studies. The degree of equilibration between the two main collision partners in heavy ion reactions may be used to study the equation of state since it is connected to isospin ($N/Z$) transport properties of nuclear matter.

A quantitative comparison is made between the absolute cross sections associated with statistical and dynamical emission of heavy fragments in the Sn124+Ni64 and Sn112+Ni58 collisions experimentally investigated at 35A MeV beam energy using the multidetector CHIMERA. The result shows that the dynamical process is about twice as probable in the neutron-rich Sn124+Ni64 system as in the Sn112+Ni58 neutron-poor one. This unexpected and significant difference indicates that the reaction mechanism is strongly dependent on the entrance-channel isospin (N/Z) content.

This paper introduces a new method for the selection of central single-source events, based on classical multivariate techniques. The resulting discriminating variable is shown to be valid for different hypotheses on the nuclear source deexcitation mechanism. It enables the selection of events which are representative of the whole set of single-source events. Application to the Ni+Ni at 32A MeV system measured with the INDRA multidetector has allowed the determination of the fusion probability as a function of the impact parameter and the evaluation of the corresponding cross section.

Signatures of isospin effects were investigated for neutron-rich (${}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{64}\mathrm{Ni}$) and neutron-poor (${}^{112}\mathrm{Sn}+{}^{58}\mathrm{Ni}$) systems at 35 MeV/nucleon for noncentral collisions. The centrality dependence of these signatures was tested for several impact parameter estimators. Our main observations are (i) the yields of ${}^1\mathrm{H}$ and ${}^3\mathrm{He}$ particles in the neutron-poor system are strongly enhanced with respect to the neutron-rich system, and the yields of ${}^3\mathrm{H}$, ${}^6\mathrm{He}$, and ${}^{7,8}\mathrm{Li}$ are suppressed at all impact parameters, (ii) the yields of ${}^2\mathrm{H}$, ${}^4\mathrm{He}$, and ${}^6\mathrm{Li}$ particles are almost the same for both systems, (iii) the $N/Z$ ratio of intermediate mass fragments is correlated with the neutron richness of the system and is weakly dependent on the centrality of the collision, and (iv) the neutron richness of the detected fragments increases strongly with decreasing rapidity in the range from that of the projectile-like fragment to the c.m. region. The gross features of experimental data are reproduced by quantum molecular dynamics model calculations. A comparison between model calculations and the data indicates that the fragments produced in the c.m. regions are weakly excited.