Extraction of signals of a phase transition from nuclear multifragmentation

Abstract

We use a percolation model of nuclear fragmentation to study the possibility of observing a phase transition of nuclear matter in collisions of high-energy (> 10 GeV) protons with heavy targets. It is shown that the model is able to reproduce experimental results for inclusive mass yields, while only using very simple physical assumptions. By employing event by event analysis of the moments of the mass distributions it is shown how to extract possible signals of a phase transition and information on its specific nature. Special attention is focused on the influence of the size of the fragmenting system on our ability to observe the phase transition.