Conditions for equivalence of Statistical Ensembles in Nuclear Multifragmentation

TL;DR

This paper investigates when canonical and grand canonical statistical models produce similar results in nuclear multifragmentation, showing they can be equivalent for finite nuclei under specific conditions relevant to experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates the conditions under which canonical and grand canonical ensembles yield equivalent predictions in nuclear multifragmentation for finite systems.

Findings

Models are equivalent when low mass clusters dominate.

Results converge when nucleons and small clusters form predominantly.

Conditions are experimentally accessible.

Abstract

Statistical models based on canonical and grand canonical ensembles are extensively used to study intermediate energy heavy ion collisions. The underlying physical assumption behind canonical and grand canonical models is fundamentally different, and in principle agree only in the thermodynamical limit when the number of particles become infinite. Nevertheless, we show that these models are equivalent in the sense that they predict similar results if certain conditions are met even for finite nuclei. In particular, the results converge when nuclear multifragmentation leads to the formation of predominantly nucleons and low mass clusters. The conditions under which the equivalence holds are amenable to present day experiments.