Nuclear multifragmentation time-scale and fluctuations of largest fragment size

TL;DR

This paper investigates the statistical distributions of the largest fragment in nuclear multifragmentation, revealing their connection to the reaction's time-scale and the onset of radial expansion, with implications for understanding nuclear disassembly.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the distribution of the largest fragment size follows a universal pattern across different energies and models, linking it to the multifragmentation time-scale.

Findings

Largest fragment distributions are Gaussian or Gumbel, depending on energy.

Distribution behavior is consistent across models and equilibrium states.

The distributions are linked to the onset of radial expansion in reactions.

Abstract

Distributions of the largest fragment charge, Zmax, in multifragmentation reactions around the Fermi energy can be decomposed into a sum of a Gaussian and a Gumbel distribution, whereas at much higher or lower energies one or the other distribution is asymptotically dominant. We demonstrate the same generic behavior for the largest cluster size in critical aggregation models for small systems, in or out of equilibrium, around the critical point. By analogy with the time-dependent irreversible aggregation model, we infer that Zmax distributions are characteristic of the multifragmentation time-scale, which is largely determined by the onset of radial expansion in this energy range.