Looking for bimodal distributions in multi-fragmentation reactions Original Research Article

The presence of a phase transition in a finite system can be deduced, together with its order, from the shape of the distribution of the order parameter. This issue has been extensively studied in multi-fragmentation experiments, with results that do not appear fully consistent. In this paper we discuss the effect of the statistical ensemble or sorting conditions on the shape of fragment distributions, and propose a new method, which can be easily implemented experimentally, to discriminate between different fragmentation scenario. This method, based on a reweighting of the measured distribution to account for the experimental constraints linked to the energy deposit, is tested on different simple models, and appears to provide a powerful discrimination.