The 24Mg(ot, a') 12C+12C reaction was studied by measuring 12C fragments in coincidence with inelastically scattered a-particles at E,=120 MeV. Both 12C fragments were identified using the AE-E technique. The measured angular correlations indicate that the 12Cg~ + 12Cg S decay channel is dominated by decay of L = 2 strength, which yields an integrated fraction of 0.14% of the E2 EWSR strength in comparison with 22.2% of the E2 EWSR strength observed in singles inelastic a-scattering experiments in the same excitation energy region.

Neutron folds in two high-eSciency neutron multiplicity meters (NMM) were measured in coincidence with projectilelike fragments from the ' 'Ho+ Fe reaction at a low bombarding energy of El,b =7.2 MeV/nucleon. Utilizing a complex Monte Carlo procedure to simulate both the fragment decay cascades and the response of the NMM's, the average excitation energies of the fragments were deduced as functions of the total-kinetic-energy loss. The rather slow evolution of the experimental excitation energy partition from an equipartition at the initial stages of the collision towards its thermal equilibrium limit is found to be in quantitative agreement with the predictions of the one-body nucleon-exchange model.

Neutron spectra from the inverse-kinematics reaction '"Ni+ "Pb at F~"s/A =6.65 Me.V have been measured in coincidence with nickel-like fragments.Neutron emission patterns for net pickup and stripping channels have been analyzed in terms of sequentia1 evaporation from fully accelerated projectilelike and targetlike fragments. As at higher energies, these patterns suggest an absence of appreciable correlations between net mass transfer and excitation energy division for strongly damped collisions, at the present near-barrier energy. The overall multiplicities, as well as energy spectra and angular distributions of neutrons, are well reproduced by simulation calculations, assuming an energy division always in favor of the heavy fragment.

Neutrons from the fusion reactions of 120 -150 MeV Si with Sn and Sn target nuclei have been measured in coincidence with evaporation residues, in two series of complementary experiments using either a 4' neutron multiplicity meter or a neutron time-of-flight spectrometer. Both the energy spectra and multiplicity distributions reveal significant quantitative di8'erences in the decay patterns of the compound nuclei Gd and Gd formed in the two reactions studied. It is shown that these differences cannot be understood in terms of decay cascades proceeding through states of enhanced collective energy, such as the superdeformed states, suggested in earlier studies. Instead, they can be explained consistently within the framework of a statistical decay model, if diferent effective level density parameters are allowed for the evaporation chains of the two composite systems. PACS number(s): 25.70.Jj, 25.70.Gh

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