Universal fluctuations: a new approach to the study of "phase transitions" in intermediate energy heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The universal theory of order parameter fluctuations (delta scaling laws) is applied to a wide range of intermediate energy heavy-ion collision data obtained with INDRA. This systematic study confirms that the observed fragment production is compatible with aggregation scenarios for in- or out-of-equilibrium continuous phase transitions, while not showing any sign of critical behaviour or phase coexistence. We stress the importance of the methodology employed in order to gain further insight into the mechanism(s) responsible.