STATISTICAL NATURE OF NUCLEAR MULTIFRAGMENTATION

A recent analysis of multifragmentation data in terms of an elementary binary decay appears to imply that the decay is sequential and from a thermalized source. This last feature would imply a lack of sensitivi ty to dynamical effects, at least in this multifragmentation data. We discuss this analysis using a simultaneous statistical multifragmentat ion model (SMM), which assumes decay from a thermalized source, and al so employing a molecular dynamics model (MDM). The elementary binary d ecay analysis of the SMM predictions yields results which are qualitat ively similar to those of the data. The differences are shown to stem from superposition of processes associated with very different impact parameters. Thus the data are not inconsistent with simultaneous decay . The MDM calculations, on the other hand, disagree with the data. We suggest, however, that more reliable dynamical calculations are needed before accepting an absence of dynamical effects in these data.