STOCHASTIC-BEHAVIOR OF COOLING PROCESSES IN HOT NUCLEI

The collapse of structure effects observed in hot nuclei is interprete d in terms of a dynamic lattice model which describes the process of n ucleon (clusters) evaporation from a hot nucleus, predicting the Final mass distribution. Results are compared with experimental data for th e B-10+Be-9 and B-10+B-10 reactions, and indicate that thr structures observed in the low-energy mass distributions in both simulation and e xperiment are a consequence of the competition between the residual in teractions and the thermalization dissipative process. As a characteri stic feature of complex evolving systems, this competition lends to lo ng term memory during the dissipative path, the observables becoming t hus insensitive to the actual microscopic interactions.