Projectile fragment emission in the fragmentation of $$^{f 56}mathbf{Fe}$$56Fe on Al, C, and $$mathbf{CH}_{mathbf{2}}$$CH2 targets

The emission angle distribution of projectile fragments (PFs) and the temperature of PF emission sources for fragmentation of $$^{56}\hbox {Fe}$$ on polyethylene, carbon, and aluminum targets at the highest energy of 497 A MeV are investigated on the basis of corrected data, using a CR-39 plastic nuclear track detector. It is found that the average emission angle of PFs increases with the decrease in PF charge for the same target, and no obvious dependence of angular distribution on the mass of the target nucleus is found for the same PF. The cumulative squared transverse momentum distribution of PFs can be well represented by a single Rayleigh distribution. The temperature of PF emission sources is extracted from the distribution, and it is about 1.0–8.0 MeV and does not depend on the mass of the target for PFs with charges of $$9\le {Z}\le 25$$.