TIME-INVARIANT SCALING IN DISCRETE FRAGMENTATION PROCESSES

Linear rate equations are used to describe the cascading decay of an i nitial heavy cluster into fragments. We consider moments of arbitrary orders of the mass multiplicity spectrum and derive scaling properties pertaining to their time evolution. We suggest that the mass weighted multiplicity is a suitable observable for the discovery of scaling. N umerical tests validate such properties, even for moderate values of t he initial mass (nuclei, percolation clusters, etc.). Finite size effe cts can be simply parametrized.