Particle size statistics in dynamic fragmentation

Abstract

Condensed matter, when subjected to intense disrupting forces through impact or radiation deposition, will break up into a randomly distributed array of fragments. An earlier analysis of random fragmentation is extended to account for fragmentation in bodies which are finite in extent and for bodies within which the minimum fragment size is bounded. The statistical fragment size relations are compared with molecular dynamic simulations of dynamic fragmentation, with fragmentation caused by the high‐energy collision of nuclear particles, and with the distribution of galaxies in the universe which are assumed to be fragment debris from the primordial Big Bang.