Time dependence of critical behavior in fragmentation

P. BALENZUELA, A. CHERNOMORETZ Y C. O. DORSO

PHYS. REV. - C

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 2002 vol. 66 p. 24613 - 24618

0556-2813

We study signatures of critical behavior in microscopic simulations of small, highly excited Lennard-Jones drops. We focus our attention on the behavior of the system at the time of fragment formation (which takes place in phase space) and compare the results with the corresponding ones obtained at asymptotic times (experimentally accessible). The four critical exponents (τ, β, σ, and γ) found at fragmentation time have shown to be stable against time evolution, indicating that the asymptotic stage reflects accurately the physics at fragmentation time. Even though evidence of critical behavior arises from the calculations, we cannot affirm that the system is performing a second-order-like phase transition.