Fragile Signs of Criticality in the Nuclear Multifragmentation

Abstract

Deviations from an idealized equilibrium phase transition picture in nuclear multifragmentation is studied in terms of the entropic index. We investigate different heat-capacity features in the canonical quantum statistical model of nuclear multifragmentation generalized in the framework of Tsallis nonextensive thermostatistics. We find that the negative branch of heat capacity observed in quasi-peripheral Au+Au collisions is caused primarily by the non-generic nonextensivity effects.