Dynamical instability of hot and compressed nuclei

Abstract

The dynamical evolution of a hot and compressed nucleus is described by means of an extended liquid-drop model. Using only the continuity equation and the energy conservation we show that the system expands after a while. The possible global instabilities of the drop are studied by applying the general conditions of stability of dynamical systems. We find that the nucleus is unstable if it can reach a low density configuration (⋍0.07 nucleon/fm 3). Such a configuration is obtained if the initial compression of the nucleus is large enough. It is shown that the thermal excitation energy has much less influence than the compressional energy. These instability conditions are in good agreement with those obtained previously within the framework of lattice percolation and the same model for the dynamical expansion. Since local instabilities may also very likely be present, we propose to study them using a restructured aggregation model. They lead to a multifragmentation of the system, a mechanism which is known experimentally to exist. We find that local instabilities occur at smaller (but very close) density values than global ones. A moment analysis of the calculated multifragmentation events allows to extract a critical exponent in excellent agreement with the one deduced experimentally from Au-induced reactions.