DETECTING NUCLEAR MULTIFRAGMENTATION

A moment analysis in terms of bivariate distributions of global variab les for two colliding nuclei at intermediate energy is presented. It i s shown that the selection of the impact parameter through narrow cuts in the total transverse kinetic energy naturally modifies the true fl uctuations of the fragment multiplicity distributions. This is support ed by a classical simulation of a system whose equation of state resem bles that of nuclear matter. An intermittent behaviour of two collidin g nuclei at a beam energy around 100 MeV/nucleon and large impact para meters is suggested.