Neutron Multiplicity Distributions and the Role of Transfer and Breakup in Quasielastic Heavy-Ion Reactions at 15 MeV/Nucleon

A new tool for the study of heavy-ion reactions is obtained by adapting a 4..pi..-neutron-multiplicity counter to accelerator experiments. The instrument registers almost all neutrons emitted in each single reaction event. For quasielastic reactions of 290-MeV /sup 20/Ne + /sup 197/Au the measured neutron multiplicity distributions allow a quantitative decomposition of the cross section into two contributions: one with higher Q value from transfer reactions, one with lower Q value due to the decay of the projectilelike fragments.