  The cross sections and velocity distributions of heavy residues from the
reaction of 20 AMeV 124Sn + 27Al have been measured at forward angles using the
MARS recoil separator at Texas A&M in a wide mass range. A consistent overall
description of the measured cross sections and velocity distributions was
achieved using a model calculation employing the concept of deep-inelastic
transfer for the primary stage of peripheral collisions, pre-equilibrium
emission and incomplete fusion for the primary stage of more violent central
collisions and the statistical model of multifragmentation (SMM code) for the
deexcitation stage. An alternative calculation employing the sequential binary
decay (GEMINI code) could not reproduce the observed yields of the residues
from violent collisions (A<90) due to different kinematic properties. The
success of SMM demonstrates that the heavy residues originate from events where
a competition of thermally equilibrated fragment partitions takes place rather
than a sequence of binary decays.
