MULTIFRAGMENTATION WITH BROWNIAN ONE-BODY DYNAMICS

A first application is made of Brownian One-Body Dynamics to nuclear m ultifragmentation. A gold nucleus is compressed to double density and then let free to evolve under the combined influence of the effective one-body field and the residual two-body collision processes, with the effects of the fluctuations included whenever local spinodal instabil ity occurs. The system quickly expands into a hollow and unstable conf iguration which transforms into several intermediate-mass fragments. T he analysis of the resulting fragment pattern suggests that the model provides a physically reasonable description of nuclear multifragmenta tion processes. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.