Particle number correlations in nuclear disassembly

Abstract

An investigation of data and model calculations pertaining to the disassembly of an excited nucleus reveals that the probability of occurrence of various partitions is, in the cases considered, well approximated by expressions of the multinomial form. This finding implies that static (number) correlations (apart from those implied by the constraint of fixed total mass or charge) are rather weak and leads to the conclusion that dynamical correlations need to be measured in order to investigate details of the disassembly mechanism. The sensitivity of correlations to conserved quantities may however by useful for the investigation of certain aspects of the reaction mechanism, in particular for the distinction between central and peripheral collisions.