Time scale for emission of soft ejectiles in the disassembly of hot nuclei

Small-angle relative velocity correlations have been measured for the emission of soft intermediate mass fragments (0.7 less than or equal to EIA less than or equal to 3.0 MeV) in high-deposition-energy events produced in the 4.8 GeV He-3 + Au-197 reaction. The experimental correlations are compared with an N-body Coulomb-trajectory simulation that accounts for the fragment spectra, multiplicity, and charge distributions. In order to reproduce the data, a small residue (Z similar to 10-20) that is located randomly in the breakup volume is required. This analysis indicates breakup time scales of order tau = 20-50 fm/c.