Source shape determination with directional fragment-fragment velocity correlations

Abstract Correlation functions, constructed from directional projections of the relative velocities of fragments, are used to determine the shape of the breakup volume in coordinate space. For central collisions of 129Xe + natSn at 50 MeV per nucleon incident energy, measured with the 4π multidetector INDRA at GSI, a prolate shape aligned along the beam direction with an axis ratio of 1 : 0.7 is deduced. The sensitivity of the method is discussed in comparison with conventional fragment–fragment velocity correlations.