1210.0691 (D. Gruyer et al.)

Nuclear multifragmentation time-scale and fluctuations of largest
fragment size    [PDF]

D. Gruyer, J. D. Frankland, R. Botet, M. Ploszajczak, E. Bonnet, A. Chbihi, G. Ademard, M. Boisjoli, B. Borderie, R. Bougault, D. Guinet, P. Lautesse, L. Manduci, N. Le Neindre, P. Marini, P. Pawlowski, M. F. Rivet, E. Rosato, G. Spadaccini, M. Vigilante, J. P. Wieleczko

We show that the biggest fragment charge distribution in central collisions of 129Xe+natSn leading to multifragmentation is an admixture of two asymptotic distributions observed for the lowest and highest bombarding energies. The evolution of the relative weights of the two components with bombarding energy is shown to be analogous to that observed as a function of time for the largest cluster produced in irreversible fragmentation for a finite system. This analogy allows us to speak of pseudo-critical nuclear multifragmentation around Ebeam \approx 30 MeV/A. We infer that the size distribution of the largest fragment in nuclear multifragmentation is also characteristic of the time scale of the process, which is largely determined by the onset of radial expansion in this energy range.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0691