Decay of excited 116Ba* formed in the 58Ni+58Ni reaction via the emission of intermediate mass fragments

A new cluster decay process is proposed for the intermediate mass fragments (IMFs) observed in the low energy ⁵⁸Ni+⁵⁸→Ni¹¹⁶Ba* reaction. The IMFs arise as multiple ``clusters'' of masses less than ~20, having their origin in macroscopic liquid drop energy. The α nuclei, in particular ¹²C (or the complementary ¹⁰⁴Sn), are predicted to be the most probable decays for this reaction. The multiple light particle $(Z<~2)$ emission, other than via the statistical evaporation process (not considered here), is also shown possible, but at higher energies. The calculations are shown to fit the available data on fragment production cross sections, with the total kinetic energy (TKE) of fragments taken as the parameter. The TKE is a measurable quantity, but at present no data on TKE exist for this reaction.