Cross-sections of neutron rich nuclei from projectile fragmentation: canonical thermodynamic model estimates

Abstract

A remarkably simple dependence of fragmentation cross-section on average binding energy has been established in experimental data. This dependence was empirically parametrised leading to a very useful formula for extrapolation. We find that the canonical thermodynamic model, which has been used in the past for successful computations of many observables resulting from multifragmentation, reproduces the salient fetures of fragmentation cross-sections of very neutron rich nuclei very well. This helps towards a theoretical understanding of the observed data.