Abstract
A systematic analysis of the moments of the fragment size distribution has been carried out for the multifragmentation of Au, La, and Kr on carbon. The breakup of Au and La is consistent with a continuous thermal phase transition. The data indicate that the excitation energy per nucleon and isotopic temperature at the critical point decrease with increasing system size. This trend is attributed primarily to the increasing Coulomb energy with finite size effects playing a smaller role.
- Received 5 September 2000
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.64.041605
©2001 American Physical Society