Fluctuations and clustering in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We propose a new theory to treat fluctuation phenomena in heavy-ion reactions. In practical terms, the method is an extension of the theories of the one-body density based on mean-field plus collisional dynamics. In an exploratory study of the ${}_{}{}^{20}{}_{}{}^{}$Ne${+\mathrm{}}^{20}$Ne reaction, we find considerable fragmentation with a rapidly falling mass spectrum.