New scalings in nuclear fragmentation

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Oct 1;105(14):142701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.142701. Epub 2010 Sep 30.

Abstract

Fragment partitions of fragmenting hot nuclei produced in central and semiperipheral collisions have been compared in the excitation energy region 4-10 MeV per nucleon where radial collective expansion takes place. It is shown that, for a given total excitation energy per nucleon, the amount of radial collective energy fixes the mean fragment multiplicity. It is also shown that, at a given total excitation energy per nucleon, the different properties of fragment partitions are completely determined by the reduced fragment multiplicity (i.e., normalized to the source size). Freeze-out volumes seem to play a role in the scalings observed.