Time dependence of critical behavior in multifragmentation

P. BALENZUELA; A. CHERNOMORETZ; C.O. DORSO

Physical Review C

Año: 2002 vol. 66 p. 246131 - 246136

0556-2813

We study signatures of critical behavior in microscopic simulations of small, highly excited Lennard-Jonesdrops. We focus our attention on the behavior of the system at the time of fragment formation ~which takesplace in phase space! and compare the results with the corresponding ones obtained at asymptotic times~experimentally accessible!. The four critical exponents (t , b, s, and g ) found at fragmentation time haveshown to be stable against time evolution, indicating that the asymptotic stage reflects accurately the physicsat fragmentation time. Even though evidence of critical behavior arises from the calculations, we cannot affirmthat the system is performing a second-order-like phase transition.