THE SEARCH FOR THE SCALING FUNCTION IN THE MULTIFRAGMENTATION OF GOLDNUCLEI

It is shown that thermodynamic scaling when applied to systems with fe w (similar to 150) constituents, in accordance with the theory of crit ical phenomena, is observed in nuclear multifragmentation. Yields of d ifferent nuclear fragments, obtained over a wide range of excitation e nergies, collapse with some scatter onto a universal curve. This curve is the nuclear scaling function, which is intimately related to the f ree energy of the system. The determination of the scaling function fo rms the basis for quantitatively predicting the critical behavior in n uclei. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.