  Hanburry-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation functions and radii of negatively
charged pions from C+C, Si+Si, Cu+Cu, and In+In at lower RHIC/SPS energies are
calculated with the UrQMD transport model and the CRAB analyzing program. We
find a minimum in the excitation function of the pion freeze-out volume at low
transverse momenta and around $E_{lab}\sim 20-30A$GeV which can be related to
the transition from hadronic to string matter (which might be interpreted as a
pre-cursor of the QGP). The existence of the minimum is explained by the
competition of two mechanisms of the particle production, resonance decays and
string formation/fragmentation.
