Short timescale behavior of colliding heavy nuclei at intermediate energies

Mid-peripheral collisions of two heavy-ions at intermediate energy are used to study the short-time scale behavior of colliding nuclei. The characteristics of clusters emitted by the excited projectile-like fragment (PLF$^{\ast })$ formed in such collisions allow the characterization of the system at relatively early times. In particular, alpha particles emitted from the PLF$^{\ast }$ exhibit a strong preference for emission towards the target-like fragment. The interplay of the initial deformation of the PLF$^{\ast }$ caused by the reaction, Coulomb proximity, and the rotation of the PLF$^{\ast }$ can result in the observed anisotropic angular distribution. A description of the collisions in the framework of antisymmetrized molecular dynamics calculations will be shown.