Energetics of Midvelocity Emission in Peripheral Heavy Ion Collisions at Fermi Energies

Peripheral and semiperipheral collisions have been studied in the system 93Nb �� 93Nb at 38A MeV. The evaporative and midvelocity components of the light charged particle and intermediate mass fragment emissions have been carefully disentangled. In this way it was possible to obtain the average amount not only of charge and mass, but also of energy, pertaining to the midvelocity emission, as a function of an impact parameter estimator. This emission has a very important role in the overall balance of the reaction, as it accounts for a large fraction of the emitted mass and for more than half of the dissipated energy. As such, it may give precious clues on the microscopic mechanism of energy transport from the interaction zone toward the target and projectile remnants.