  Experimental data from the reaction of an 8.0 GeV/c pi- beam incident on a
197Au target have been analyzed in order to investigate the integrated breakup
time scale for hot residues. Alpha-particle energy spectra and particle angular
distributions supported by a momentum tensor analysis suggest that at large
excitation energy, above 3-5 MeV/nucleon, light-charged particles are emitted
prior to or at the same time as the emission of the heavy fragments. Comparison
with the SMM and GEMINI models is presented. A binary fission-like mechanism
fits the experimental data at low excitation energies, but seems unable to
reproduce the data at excitation energies above 3-5 MeV/nucleon.
