Multifragmentation and the liquid-gas  Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions and the  Introduction

   
From Nucleus to Nucleon Gas

The present activity in this field aims at the understanding of both the dynamical process leading to the formation of hot nuclei and the nature of the subsequent emission processes, from the lower excitation energies where evaporation or fission is observed up to excitation energies where the nucleus is vaporised into a gas of nucleons : typical excitation energies are therefore in the range between 1 and 20 MeV per nucleon. The object of study is therefore a finite size quantum system and the large number of concepts which are used (thermodynamics, mechanical instabilities, percolation processes, etc.) bring this field into close contact with many other disciplines : It profits from them and will eventually contribute to extend their domain of application. The introduction of quantum effects in these concepts is certainly one of the most challenging tasks of this field.