Pre-equilibrium alpha-particle emission as a probe to study alpha-clustering in nuclei

A theoretical approach was developed to describe secondary particle emission in heavy ion
collisions, with special regards to pre-equilibrium alpha-particle production. The probabilities of neutron,
proton and a-particle emission have been evaluated for both the equilibrium and pre-equilibrium
stages of the process. Effects due the possible cluster structure of the projectile which has been excited
during the collisions have been experimentally evidenced studying the double differential cross
sections of p and alpha-particles emitted in the E=250MeV 16O +116Sn reaction. Calculations within the
present model with different clusterization probabilities have been compared to the experimental data.