Abstract
Following the lead of a recent work, I perform a variational principle model calculation for the nuclear caloric curve. A Skyrme-type interaction with and without momentum dependence is used. The calculation is done for a large nucleus, i.e., in the nuclear matter limit. Thus I address the issue of volume fragmentation only. Nonetheless, the results are similar to the previous, largely phenomenological calculation for a finite nucleus. I find that the onset of fragmentation can be sudden as a function of temperature or excitation energy.
- Received 5 August 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.72.064601
©2005 American Physical Society