[en] This contribution stresses results recently obtained from experiment E900 performed at the Brookhaven AGS accelerator with 8 GeV/c antiproton and negative pion beams using the Indiana Silicon Sphere detector array. An investigation of the reaction mechanism is presented, along with source characteristics deduced from a two-component fit to the spectra. An enhancement of deposition energy with the antiproton beam with respect to the pion beam is observed. The results are qualitatively consistent with predictions of an intranuclear cascade code

[en] Multifragmentation studies induced by GeV light-ion beams permit investigation of the influence of intrinsic thermal properties of hot nuclear matter, with minimal interference from the compression/decompression cycle and rotational instabilities. We summarize recent results obtained with ³He, proton and pion beams up to 15 GeV/c and present the initial results from a recent experiment with 8 GeV/c antiproton and pion beams. The results are compared with INC simulations coupled to EES and SMM models and the caloric curve for the ³He data will also be discussed

[en] Heating of nuclear matter with 8 GeV/c bar p and π^- beams has been investigated in an experiment conducted at BNL AGS accelerator. All charged particles from protons to Z ≅ 16 were detected using the Indiana Silicon Sphere 4π array. Significant enhancement of energy deposition in high multiplicity events is observed for antiprotons compared to other hadron beams. The experimental trends are qualitatively consistent with predictions from an intranuclear cascade code

[en] The excitation energy per residue nucleon (E*/A) and fast and thermal light particle multiplicities are studied as a function of centrality defined as the number of grey tracks emitted N_grey and by the mean number of primary hadron-nucleon scatterings (<ν>) and the mean impact parameter (< b>) extracted from it. The value of E*/A and the multiplicities show an increase with centrality for all systems, 14.6 GeV p-Au and 8.0 GeV π-Au and p-Au collisions, and the excitation energy per residue nucleon exhibits a uniform dependence on N_grey

[en] Exclusive light-charged-particle and IMF spectra have been measured with the ISiS detector array for bombardments of ²⁷Al, ^natAg, and ¹⁹⁷Au nuclei with 130-270-MeV ³He and 200-MeV protons. The results are consistent with previous interpretations based on inclusive data that describe the global yield of complex fragments in terms of a time-dependent process. The emission mechanism for energetic nonequilibrium fragments observed at forward angles with momenta up to twice the beam momentum is also investigated. This poorly understood mechanism, for which the angular distributions indicate formation on a time scale comparable to the nuclear transit time, are accompanied primarily by thermal-like emissions. The data are most consistent with a schematic picture in which nonequilibrium fragments are formed in a localized region of the target nucleus at an early stage in the energy-dissipation process, where the combined effects of high energy density and Fermi motion produce the observed suprathermal spectra

[en] The multifragmentation data of the ISiS Collaboration and the EOS Collaboration are examined. Fisher's droplet formalism, modified to account for Coulomb energy, is used to determine the critical exponents τ and σ, the surface energy coefficient c₀, the pressure-temperature-density coexistence curve of finite nuclear matter and the location of the critical point